At his January inauguration, President Barack Obama promised to “restore science to its rightful place” and his budgetary plans propose to do exactly that. In particular, climate-change research would receive a large funding increase and several departments and agencies will be required to refocus their efforts to better understand global warming and what it means for America, and the world.
The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would receive an additional $1.3 billion to develop new weather satellites and climate sensors, and to enable NOAA to conduct more extensive research into climate science and oceanography.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would get more money to zero-in on global climate research — a dramatic change from the next-generation space flight emphasis of the Bush era. NASA’s budget calls for a $1.5 billion increase over the next two years, with its fiscal 2010 budget totaling $18.7 billion. NASA will be charged with developing new space-based sensors to “deploy a global climate research and monitoring system.”
The National Science Foundation has endured flat budgets for years, but that too will change under Obama. The agency will be tasked with developing a climate-change education program for environmental scientists and engineers. The administration wants to double NSF’s basic research budget over the next decade, starting with $800 million more in 2009. The NSF also garnered $3 billion from the economic-stimulus package.
(Culled from The Wall Street Journal)