conservatives rewrite nasa mission

Conservatives rewrite NASA mission statement

At the beginning of this year, the Bush administration used

heavy-handed measures to silence NASA scientists reporting on global

warming. In spite of their efforts Dr. James E. Hansen, longtime

director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, made it

clear that without leadership by the United States, climate change

would eventually leave the earth "a different planet." At that time

Charles Stern wrote a short article called Harassing NASA in which he

criticizes conservatives for their effort to cover up global warming.

He wrote:

NASA''s mission statement includes the words, "To advance

scientific knowledge and understanding of the Earth."�" If the top

scientific thinkers in the world feel strongly enough about their

conclusions toward these ends (global warming) that they are

willing to voice their concerns publicly, perhaps President Bush

should concentrate less on shutting them up and more on listening

to what they have to say.

But, as AeroNews.Net noted yesterday, instead of reviewing the data

and heeding the warnings on global warming the Bush administration,

always adverse to science, simply wrote NASA's mission statement,

dropping the words "to understanding and protection our home planet".

Another of their head-in-the-sand dirty moves to keep the

Corporatocracy's "business as usual" plan running at open throttle, no

matter what the cost. The secret conservative mission statement must

read something like: "Screw earth and everybody on it, but us".

In a manner that has come to define conservatives, the change was done

secretly, behind closed doors. Not even NASA knew. The news is only

now making its way through the agency. It was reported in the New York

Times on July 22nd in an article by Andrew C. Revkin titled, "NASA's

Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet". In it he writes,

"The change comes as an unwelcome surprise to many NASA scientists,

who say the ""understand and protect" phrase was not merely window

dressing but actively influenced the shaping and execution of

research priorities. Without it, these scientists say, there will

be far less incentive to pursue projects to improve understanding

of terrestrial problems like climate change caused by greenhouse

gas emissions."

Typical of this sneaky administration that places itself above all

review.

As senior NASA climate scientist James Hansen, director of the

agency''s Goddard Institute for Space Studies put it, "The Bush

Administration wants to have an open, honest debate on climate change

as long as that debate involves people who agree with their position."

In a all out effort to censor his writings and lectures on global

warming, the Bush Administration has made a personal target of Dr.

Hansen. They desperately want to shut him up because he says things

like, "without U.S.-led changes in emissions controls, the world will

be left dramatically and irreversibly altered due to global warming."

I love this guy. It's encouraging when anyone breaks the silence and

dares to stand up to these fucks.

An administration-appointed public affairs official, George Deutsch,

regularly screens Dr. Hansen''s documents and news media interviews in

order to ""make the President look good." Hansen has also received

several phone calls warning of dire consequences for his critical

commentary but hearing of the change in NASA's mission statement he

was quick to point out that the change "might reflect White House

eagerness to shift the spotlight away from global warming.

For starters, visit Stop Global Warming. We can't afford to wallow in