now isn't this interesting..
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cia-shuts-down-climate-research-program/ar-BBk6lK9
CIA Shuts Down Climate Research Program
National Journal
Jason Plautz
3 hrs ago
The Central Intelligence Agency is shutting down a research program that offered classified data to scientists to examine the link between climate change and global security threats.
A CIA spokesman confirmed that the agency had ended its MEDEA program, a 1990s-era intelligence program restarted in 2010 under President Obama. The collaboration gave scientists access to intelligence assets like satellite data to study climate change and inform on how its impacts could inflame conflicts.
CIA spokesman Ryan Whaylen said "these projects have been completed and CIA will employ these research results and engage external experts as it continues to evaluate the national security implications of climate change."
The news was first reported by Mother Jones.
The announcement comes just days after President Obama said climate change was a "serious threat to global security" in a commencement address to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Climate change, Obama said, "will impact how our military defends our country. So we need to act, and we need to act now."
Under Medea, which stands for Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis, gave a group of scientists security clearance and access to previously collected data for study. The program itself was kept largely under wraps and was not largely cited, but scientists quoted in reports about the program say the data was often more high quality than what they could get through other sources.
In a 1996 speech, Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch said the environmental data collected by the intelligence community could be used to predict instability in other nations by, say, measuring crop output in North Korea or the effects of an oil spill in Russia. Deutch also said that CIA assets had been used to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency respond to a wildfire in Alaska, because the existing satellites were able to track its impact faster than civilian planes.
A CIA spokesman did not respond to questions about whether the data would continue to be made available to scientists or other agencies.
The program was started in the 1990s, but was shut down in the early days of the George W. Bush administration. It was restarted in 2010 under the direction of Leon Panetta, backed by former Vice President Al Gore.
The research effort, as with most environmental work, has drawn the ire of congressional Republicans. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., has particularly been critical of the intelligence agency's environmental work, saying in 2010 that "should be focused on monitoring terrorists in caves, not polar bears on icebergs."
And generally, Republicans have been scornful of the defense community's work on climate change, saying that the administration is ignoring the threat of terrorism and global instability in favor of environmental goals. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., released a lengthy statement this week calling Obama's Coast Guard Academy speech a "severe disconnect from reality," and mentioning ISIS, North Korea and Syria among the threats he said the military should be focused on.
The CIA in 2012 also shut down its Center on Climate Change and National Security, a group of security specialists who studied existing climate data to game out how changes could impact security threats. That left MEDEA as the agency's primary climate change program.
The Defense Department has been active in climate change, as studies have linked extreme weather to instability across the globe. In February, the White House listed climate change among its global concerns in its National Security Strategy. An October, 2014 Defense report identified climate change as a "threat multiplier" that would make existing conflicts worse and outlined ways it was incorporating climate into its training and operations.
Quote from: space otter on May 22, 2015, 01:01:54 PM
And generally, Republicans have been scornful of the defense community's work on climate change, saying that the administration is ignoring the threat of terrorism and global instability in favor of environmental goals.
Funny that. Republicans seem to spend an awful lot of their time hoping people do not look into the causes of climate change.
Quote from: Pimander on May 22, 2015, 01:19:24 PM
Funny that. Republicans seem to spend an awful lot of their time hoping people do not look into the causes of climate change.
Maybe because they, like the vast majority of THINKING people, realize that golbal climate change is a NATURAL event and HU-MONS have nothing to do with it....That's why they call it THE SOLAR SYSTEM!...(but Republicans are just like Demorats....they want power and should be scorned alike)...
Rock 8)
P.s.....also Obama is on his last legs and a change it bees a comin'...:)
bwhahahahahaahh
perfect example of merc retro here...
the article says that the spy guys aren't going to share anymore satelite info with the weather guys
and some how the replies go political .... ;D
yep..mercury retrograde..and it continues this time till june 11
A few years back...
Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified
For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere – but no longer.
A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned.
The satellites' main objectives include detecting nuclear bomb tests, and their characterizations of asteroids and lesser meteoroids as they crash through the atmosphere has been a byproduct data bonanza for scientists.
http://www.space.com/6829-military-hush-incoming-space-rocks-classified.html
NASA Dryden Research Center renamed to Armstrong Research Center
They have recently closed the door to base tours for the public
CIA is clamping down on UFO reports again. A lot of files that were available at DoD, CIA, FBI Vault and DTIC have been removed
YOU do not have a "Need to Know" on impending DOOM anymore