<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/science-under-siege-us-data-cuts-threaten-climate-modelling-amid-warnings-of-a-misinformation-maelstrom/>
"Australian climate scientists are warning that funding cuts to major US
science agencies have serious consequences for Australia’s weather forecasting
and climate modelling – with the damage compounded by a surge in climate
misinformation and growing hostility towards researchers.
Giving evidence to the Senate inquiry on information integrity on climate and
energy, Associate Professor Ailie Gallant from the ARC Centre of Excellence for
the Weather of the 21st Century, said critical US data sets that underpin
Australian forecasts have stopped being updated since the return of the Trump
administration.
“A lot of the data we use has not been available or has not been updated,” she
told senators. “This has significant consequences for everything from daily
weather forecasting to seasonal outlooks that farmers rely on, all the way
through to long-term climate projections.”
The Centre’s submission warns that the US cutbacks – including job losses and
program closures at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) – could reduce global access to satellite and sea-surface
temperature data, threatening cooperation in international climate monitoring.
“Even partial restrictions or degradation in quality undermine our ability to
understand Australia’s changing climate and prepare for future challenges,”
Gallant said. Gaps in understanding may arrive “at a very inopportune time as
global climate change accelerates,” with lost data from satellites and
ground-based ocean networks impossible to replace quickly.
“Once a satellite is down, it’s down,” she said. “It takes years to build
another one and put it back up.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
