A report released this week directs the U.S. government to spark a “new golden age” of science by ushering funds toward artificial intelligence, fostering closer relationships with private industry, and dismantling and rebuilding the federal science funding process.
science policy
Posted inResearch & Developments
We’re Getting Better at Knowing When Climate Change Is to Blame, National Academies Report Says
Scientists have gotten much better at parsing how severe events are linked to climate change, a long-awaited report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has found.
The report was developed by 14 experts (including climatologists, meteorologists, and atmospheric scientists) and updates a 2016 report on the same subject. That report found that climate change was partly responsible for worsening heat waves, cold events, droughts, and heavy precipitation events, but that improvements to attribution science—a branch of climate science that aims to determine the extent to which individual extreme weather events are caused by climate change—were needed.
Posted inNews
Changes in Funding Could Tank Quality of Ocean Heat Content Data
An uncertain funding landscape threatens the longevity of an ocean observation system critical to projecting tropical storms, sea level rise, and more.
Posted inResearch & Developments
A Climate Skeptic Will Oversee the National Climate Assessment
Since 2000, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has been responsible for publishing the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated evaluation of the effects of climate change on the United States released every four years. Now, the program—and the assessment—is headed by Matthew Wielicki, an outspoken climate change denier, self-described “Earth science professor-in-exile,” and former University of Alabama geochemist, according to POLITICO.
Posted inNews
Calculating the Costs of Wetland Loss
Wetlands protect communities and ecosystems from flooding. A new study quantifies their financial importance.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Proposed OMB Rule Change Attracts 340,000+ Public Comments
The OMB is accepting public comments on the proposal until 13 July, and organizations across the country have mobilized to coordinate responses.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Amid USFS Upheaval, Utah and Colorado Are Burning
The fires come in the wake of historically low amounts of snow in the American West, as well as organizational changes at the U.S. Forest Service.
Posted inResearch & Developments
NSF Cuts Hundreds of Science Program Budgets by Up to 30%
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has slashed budgets for hundreds of its basic science programs for the remainder of this fiscal year, according to an 18 June memo obtained by Science.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Trump Administration to Remove Hundreds of Deep-Ocean Observation Instruments, Dismantling $368 Million Program
The Trump administration’s National Science Foundation (NSF) has begun dismantling the infrastructure of a $368 million deep-ocean observing program critical to monitoring marine ecosystems, global currents, marine heat waves, and more, according to a 21 May announcement.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Judge Blocks NSF From Dismantling NCAR
“NSF’s failure to provide any explanation for its decision—let alone a reasonable one—thwarts meaningful judicial review and renders the challenged action arbitrary and capricious,” the judge wrote.