Trump dismantles NASA climate change program

The Trump administration has cut off funding for a major NASA satellite-based climate change research program, according to the latest issue of Science magazine.

The magazine reported that even though Congress has successfully fended off much of the White House's "broad attack on climate science," a spending deal signed in March made no mention of NASA's $10-million-a-year Carbon Monitoring System.

Unlike the satellites that provide the climate data, the research program that uses the data had no private contractor to lobby for it.

NASA spokesman Steve Cole told Science that existing grants for the program will be allowed to finish but no new research will be supported.

NASA declined to provide a reason for the cancellation beyond "budget constraints and higher priorities within the science budget."

Phil Duffy, president of the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Mass., told the magazine the monitoring system is an obvious target for the Trump administration because of its association with the Paris climate change agreement and its work with other nations to help them understand their greenhouse gas emissions.

Many of the 65 research programs that the system supports are focused on tracking how global CO2 is stored naturally in forests, rivers, and other natural formations.

Many scientists blame carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted from the burning of fossil fuels for raising the temperature of the Earth, with devastating consequences such as ocean acidification, more droughts, and flooding.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/trump-dismantles-nasa-climate-change-program

>>1368564

Waste, fraud and abuse are being chipped away on a daily basis, so lets hope cutting free money stream ends it.

France’s foreign minister: Europeans will do everything to protect companies threatened by US sanctions on Iran

French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian blasted the U.S. for announcing “unacceptable” sanctions that will be reintroduced against Iran and foreign businesses that trade with the country, following President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this week.

The U.S. has given foreign businesses six months to break away from conducting business with Iran, or else face sanctions from the U.S. They also must not initiate new business dealings with the regime.

"We feel that the extraterritoriality of their sanction measures are unacceptable," Le Drian said, per the French daily Le Parisien. "The Europeans should not have to pay for the withdrawal of an agreement by the United States, to which they had themselves contributed."

He also said that Europeans would “do everything to protect the interests of their companies."

Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that the U.S. would pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and the “highest level of economic sanction” would be imposed, adding that nations who assist Iran obtain nuclear weapons could also face sanctions from the U.S.

Trump has long railed against the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and informed Congress he would not recertify the agreement six months ago. The Obama-era deal sought to freeze Iran's nuclear development program in exchange for international sanctions relief.

On Tuesday, Trump argued that staying in the “horrible, one-sided deal” would have prompted a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

"If I allowed this deal to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East; everyone would want their weapons ready by the time Iran had theirs," Trump said Tuesday. "It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement."

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/frances-foreign-minister-europeans-will-do-everything-to-protect-companies-threatened-by-us-sanctions-on-iran

>>1368675

Amazingly sad. I hope they wake up too.