[Vision2020] Tell the Senate: Reject Trump’s anti-science pick to head NASA

[Ted Moffett]

Sign petition at website below.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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https://act.credoaction.com/sign/protect-nasa?t=2&akid=25109%2E4637676%2EVFQptB

Tell the Senate: Reject Trump’s anti-science pick to head NASA

It's no secret that Donald Trump is filling his administration with climate
change deniers. Even so, Trump’s nomination of anti-science ideologue Rep.
Jim Bridenstine to be the head of NASA is breathtaking in its ignorance and
potential for harm.

If the Senate confirms his nomination, Bridenstine could help Trump could
shutter NASA's irreplaceable Earth science missions and ground its research
satellites. With our best scientific tools trashed, we would lose much of
our ability to understand what's happening to our planet. We must not let
that happen.

*Tell the Senate: Reject anti-science Jim Bridenstine as head of NASA.*

Not only does Bridenstine have no scientific training, he opposes research
funding, parrots discredited climate denial myths and wants to rewrite
NASA's agenda. In 2013, he claimed that global temperatures had stopped
rising1 – a popular right-wing lie based on cherry-picked data.2 *But even
now that 2014, 2015 and 2016 were the three warmest years on record,3 he
still does not acknowledge the scientific consensus on climate change.*

Bridenstine once introduced a bill that illuminates his twisted view of
NASA's purpose. Currently, NASA's goals include "the expansion of human
knowledge of the Earth and of phenomena in the atmosphere and space.”4
Bridenstine's bill would have replaced that objective with “the expansion
of the human sphere of influence throughout the Solar System.”5

Bizarrely, Bridenstine wants to replace NASA's goal of knowledge with one
of influence. Instead of actually understanding our physical world, he just
wants to control it. But as we have seen with climate change and so much
other ecological devastation, expanding human influence without bothering
to understand its consequences has disastrous consequences.

*Tell the Senate: Reject anti-science Jim Bridenstine as head of NASA.*

*NASA's pioneering satellites have solved mysteries about our planet's
warming that no other research methods have been able to solve:*


   - *They measured the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets,* demonstrating
   that the sheets are melting an alarming rate.6
   - *They tracked the shrinking of California's aquifers* and rapid
   disappearance of groundwater in the state's worst drought in a thousand
   years.7
   - By measuring gravitational pull, *they actually weighed the oceans* to
   measure how much sea level rise is from melting ice sheets rather than heat
   expansion.8
   - *In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, they have been tracking flood
   patterns,* soil moisture and power failures all over East Texas.9

All of this groundbreaking work helps us to understand our changing planet
so we can predict and respond to future change.

*Yet Trump’s proposed budget would completely cut four Earth science
missions aimed at studying different aspects of the climate system, part of
a $102 million cut to NASA's Earth science program.*10 Given Bridenstine's
willful ignorance about climate change, we can assume that he would happily
support these plans. *Indeed Bridenstine once actually asked Pres. Obama to
apologize to the public for funding climate research,11 and he
misrepresented data in doing it.12*

The good news is that opposition to Bridenstine's confirmation is growing.
Both senators from Florida,where NASA is an important part of the economy,
have expressed concerns. Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the science
committee that will hold his confirmation hearing, said “the head of NASA
ought to be a space professional, not a politician."13 Even Republican Sen.
Marco Rubio agreed, saying that it’s important that NASA “remain free of
politics and partisanship.”14

Most previous NASA chiefs have been scientists or astronauts. As an
independent agency, NASA has never been led by a member of Congress in its
60-year history.15 We cannot allow Trump to politicize and hamstring this
agency now when we need its expertise more than ever.

*Tell the Senate: Reject anti-science Jim Bridenstine as head of NASA.*

*References:*

   1. Dana Nuccitelli, "Trump promised to hire the best people. He keeps
   hiring the worst. Nasa is next
   <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/sep/12/trump-promised-to-hire-the-best-people-he-keeps-hiring-the-worst-nasa-is-next>,"
   The Guardian, Sept. 12, 2017.
   2. Climate Nexus, "Debunking the Top 10 Climate Change Myths
   <http://climatenexus.org/communications-climate-change/debunking-the-top-10-climate-change-myths/>,"
   accessed Sept. 13, 2017.
   3. Ibid.
   4. Nuccitelli, "Trump promised to hire the best people. He keeps hiring
   the worst. Nasa is next
   <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/sep/12/trump-promised-to-hire-the-best-people-he-keeps-hiring-the-worst-nasa-is-next>
   ."
   5. Ibid.
   6. Jon Gertner, "What Could We Lose if a NASA Climate Mission Goes Dark?
   <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/magazine/what-could-we-lose-if-a-nasa-mission-goes-dark.html?mcubz=3>"
   The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 12, 2017.
   7. Ibid.
   8. Ibid.
   9. Ibid.
   10. Nuccitelli, "Trump promised to hire the best people. He keeps hiring
   the worst. Nasa is next
   <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/sep/12/trump-promised-to-hire-the-best-people-he-keeps-hiring-the-worst-nasa-is-next>
   ."
   11. Christian Davenport, "Support builds for Bridenstine to lead NASA
   despite past skepticism on climate change
   <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/09/11/support-builds-for-bridenstine-to-lead-nasa-despite-past-skepticism-on-climate-change/>,"
   The Washington Post, Sept. 11, 2017.
   12. Louis Jacobson, "Jim Bridenstine: U.S. spends 30 times as much on
   climate change research as on weather forecasting
   <http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jun/14/jim-bridenstine/rep-jim-bridenstine-says-us-spends-30-times-much-c/>,
   Politifact, June 14, 2013.
   13. Davenport, "Support builds for Bridenstine to lead NASA despite past
   skepticism on climate change
   <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/09/11/support-builds-for-bridenstine-to-lead-nasa-despite-past-skepticism-on-climate-change/>
   ."
   14. Ibid.
   15. Graham Lanktree, "Who is Jim Bridenstine, the climate change denier
   Trump picked to head Nasa?
   <http://www.newsweek.com/who-jim-bridenstine-climate-change-denier-trump-picked-head-nasa-660926>"
   Newsweek, Sept. 7, 2017.
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