FREEBIRD

[ergo sum]

Okay I am in favor of that but wait a minute.

Government Offers Plan to Coordinate Climate Study
By JENNIFER 8. LEE



ASHINGTON, July 24 — Seven months after first promising to come forward with a plan to look into the causes of global warming, the Bush administration introduced a comprehensive program today to coordinate current efforts studying climate change — and develop some new ones — across some 13 federal agencies.
The plan was presented at a news conference by Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Among its provisions was $103 million to be spent to deploy new satellite-based global observation technologies.
[satellites? We need more satellites? This is when I start to think maybe this would be helpful to the military. Maybe this is not about global warming comepletely]
Officials did not identify how any of the program would be financed, however, bringing concern from scientists that any new initiatives would simply draw resources away from existing research efforts.
[Wait you mean they aren't actually going to fund this? This is what this administration does all the time. They put out programs they are not going to fund, or they take funds from other programs.]
Further, environmental advocacy groups criticized the effort as an administration delaying tactic to focus on uncertainties rather than the scientific consensus that has already emerged about how human activity contributes to global warming.
"The administration wants to call a lot of attention to its research plan, because it wants to distract attention from its failure to have a global warming and pollution reduction plan," said Daniel A. Lashof, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Mr. Evans and Mr. Abraham, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of "sound science" in making decisions about climate change.
[Whiner!! I think this guy is probably right, but he is whining don't you think?]
"When it comes to global climate change, America is leading," said Mr. Evans, noting that the United States spent more on climate change research than Japan and Europe combined.
[Good for US.]
He said the federal government was spending $4.5 billion on climate change efforts, although that figure included financing for marginally related things, like a substantial amount in tax breaks that are given to business and agriculture for energy efficiency initiatives and the like.
[ This is Bush accounting. They do this all the time. It is like saying they have increased veterans funding by 4 billion dollars when 2.5 billion is actually co-payments the veterans will have to pay.]
Of the $4.5 billion figure, the budget for the Climate Change Science Program, which oversees the government's climate research, is about $1.7 billion. Budgets for the various research efforts on climate change are scheduled to be either flat or reduced in the next fiscal year.
[What? All this for nothing?]