us science panel complains re policy

US Science panel complains re policy connection

From the NYTimes:

The Climate Change Science Program, created in 2002 by President Bush

to improve climate research across 13 government agencies, has also

been hampered by priority shifts, the panel found. Those shifts have

led to the grounding of earth-observing satellites and the dismantling

of programs to monitor environmental conditions on earth, concluded

the report, issued by the National Academies, the nation's preeminent

scientific advisory group.

In a printed statement, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, the panel's chairman,

said that the program's basic scientific efforts have constituted "an

important initiative that has broadened our knowledge of climate

change."

...

But the report cited more problems than successes in the government's

research program. Of the $1.7 billion spent by the program on climate

research each year, only about $25 million to $30 million has gone to

studies of how climate change will affect human affairs, for better or

worse, the report said.

"Discovery science and understanding of the climate system are

proceeding well, but use of that knowledge to support decision-making

and to manage risks and opportunities of climate change is proceeding

slowly," concluded the 15-person panel, made up mainly of scientists

from universities, though scientists from BP and DuPont also were

included.

Update 9/15:The AP has more info and a slightly different spin.

Also Ars Technica has an interesting opinion on the matter.