Blogs Section
Thoughts on everything from climate modeling to energy policy.
Subscribe to our Blogs via RSS

Clouded Forecast: Heidi Cullen’s NY Times Op-Ed

  • Published: June 1st, 2012
Repost This

Heidi Cullen By

(The full version of this Op-Ed is on NYTimes.com)

Our ability to forecast the weather is in big trouble.

Last month, the National Research Council concluded that the nation’s system of Earth-observing satellites is in a state of “precipitous decline” and warned of a “slowing or even reversal of the steady gains in weather forecast accuracy over many years.”

This worrisome development puts all of us in harm’s way and should particularly trouble us as the annual six-month hurricane season begins today.

Gathering timely and accurate weather data is, of course . . .

Click here to read the rest of Heidi’s column in the New York Times

Follow the author on Twitter @HeidiCullen or @ClimateCentral. We're also on Facebook & other social networks.

Comments

By Kevin (Kevin)
on June 1st, 2012

What neither this brief summary, nor Heidi’s full column in the NYT, fully point out is the fact that a big reason for this precipitous decline is that the Republican’s in Congress are reducing the funding for these satellites.

Why?  Well, because they have the misfortune of also proving the Republican’s wrong on the issue of climate change.  Since “climate change is not real” is now one of the planks of the Republican Party, anything that proves them wrong has to be axed.

BTW - I speak as a former Republican…

The true tragedy is that people are going to die as a result of this.  The Republicans don’t care.  It’s more important to maintain the myth that climate change isn’t happening than it is to save people’s lives.

I, for one, will remember that in November…

Kevin

Name (required):
Email (required):
City/State/Zip:
Enter the word "climate" in the box below:

[+] View our comment guidelines.

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment will not appear until reviewed by Climate Central staff. Thank you for your patience.