Nowadays, I consider USA as corrupted as China or Russia. Good luck with changing something – anything that happens with USA will affect entire world, including my place to live.

Dr. Plait’s e-mail address can be found on the right side of the page next to his picture (it’s spelled out in an odd way to avoid spambots, but you can figure it out). In my experience he’s very good about answering any inquiry (or at least those, like yours, that are highly relevant to his blog).

PS: I don’t suppose there are any references to that article online, are there? If so, you might want to include links in your query.
I wouldn’t mind ‘em, either

Here’s a great opportunity for another organization of amateur and pro astronomers.

Sincerely
Albert J. Hoch Jr.

@40 MTU: I’d argue that the parallels are stronger than we might want to believe.
For instance, in ancient Rome, only wealthy property owners could vote.

That is how things were originally in the U.S., but it was later changed.

I could also point to how TV shows get more public and media attention then politics, or incidents of people going ape**** because (insert fast food chain) ran out of (insert junk food).
Bread and circuses, man! Bread and circuses.

/Scuze me, I need to go take my daily dose of Cynicol™.

@38. ToSeek :

Someone asked, what’s wrong with the current climate service? Short answer: there isn’t one – the responsibility is spread across the organization. This just brings it together into a unified organization.

Thanks.

That was me and that now makes sense – the use of the word ‘new’ threw me as it implied there was already an ‘old’ one.

@ 36. JMW : “.. Your [USA's] society is exactly like that of Rome before its fall ..”

Exactly? [Looks around at the States for toga clad Emperors, gladiators and Christians being fed to the lions and an aqueduct building industry. ]

Hmm .. there may be just a few differences. No slavery, women can vote, chariots have come a long way etc ..

That Presidents get elected out by the voters not assassinated out by their bodyguards is possibly a good sign? Whether these differences are enough to make the USA’s fate a bit better and less likely to fall or not – who knows. I hope so.

Things cannot be sustained as they are and will have to change in a variety of ways. There’s a lot of serious economic social and environmental issues to address (HIRGO, social inequality and soon Peak Oil to name a few.) but there’s also a lot of highly intelligent, good people trying to work on them too. The same Science and Industry that got us into this situation still remains, in my view, our best means of getting out of it again. I hope the States can recover from the present mess and don’t think that’s impossible to imagine. At least not yet.

Wrong. That’s the last cat. 3 to make US landfall. Are you really that parochial? I suggest you do some actual research and count the number of people (not just Americans) who died from Atlantic hurricanes during those 2232 days.

This is a reorganization of existing assets to coordinate and integrate NOAA’s existing climate capabilities for greater effectiveness, cohesiveness, and to improve service relevance and delivery. It will be accomplished through a zero sum realignment of funds within the current NOAA budget and will (1) neither increase or decrease the NOAA Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) or billet allocation, or require any relocation of employees, (2) not require any physical relocation of programs or labs, or require any new facilities to accommodate this reorganization, (3) result in a zero sum realignment of funds within the current NOAA budget, or (4) not increase the size of NOAA overhead. The Climate Service headquarters will be located in Silver Spring, MD, consistent with all other line offices.

Someone asked, what’s wrong with the current climate service? Short answer: there isn’t one – the responsibility is spread across the organization. This just brings it together into a unified organization.

@17 Sam H …then America will fall. If people with influence really say this, then it kinda becomes inevitable.
and
@16 DanVeteran …The days of spending and spending MUST come to an end before we have a total economic collapse.

I think American has already fallen. And has suffered an economic collapse. The country is just tottering along before the actual collapse.

The economy is addicted to military spending. If Obama ever cut the military budget, the United States would suffer through a depression. And in the meantime, you have collectively anesthestitized yourselves and are now incapable of forming coherent, sensible national policy.

Your society is exactly like that of Rome before its fall – addicted to spectacle and ignorant of reality.

And while I have made snide comments about Americans before, please rest assured that I find this painful to watch.

However, do we need a new layer of bureaucracy withing NOAA to do what is all ready NOAAs primary function? Couldn’t they just muddle along with the extra money infused into. The bloated bureaucracy they already have?

@#10 – Phil’s post clearly states “The Administration requested $322 million to establish this new entity within NOAA.” To me it sounds like they want more money. Where are you getting your information that the new service would not cost taxpayers any additional money?
With the budgets the way they are, we need to ask ourselves; Where is this money coming from? What gets cut so we can fund this new project? The days of spending and spending MUST come to an end before we have a total economic collapse. We need responsible leadership in D.C.; something we haven’t seen in many decades.

From the linked DeSMog Blog article :

At a time when Congress is fiercely debating federal spending, it would seemingly make financial sense to deny additional funding to NOAA to create their new branch. But, in a rare occurrence on Capitol Hill, the new agency wouldn’t have cost anything, and NOAA didn’t ask for a single dime to fund their new venture, completely nullifying any financial argument against this common sense proposal.

Emphasis added. Not sure yet where DeSmogBlog gets the “no money asked” bit from but see no reason to disbelieve it. OTOH, it’s hard to see the creation of a new group being entirely free either. So, yeah, I dunno ’bout that part.

What I *do* know is that it has been scientifically established that Human Induced Rapid Global Overheating (HIRGO) is real and is going to have increasingly bad effects including more natural disasters such as heatwaves, fires, floods, storms, droughts, etc.

We could if we wanted stick our heads in the sand and pretend it ain’t happening – but that will NOT make it all go away. That approach leads to more human suffering, property damage and deaths.

Or we could start taking some reasonable measures – including undertaking further studies and organising specialist groups within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrarion – to tackle the problem. That won’t make it go away either but it will give us a lot of useful knowledge and lead to the problem being less severe and less costly in the longer run. That leads to less human suffering, property damage and deaths.

PS. Another video on the US esp. Texas drought & heatwave and HIRGO link now attached to my name here.

“You just don’t understand how quickly this can get out out of hand and put people’s lives or their property in jeopardy.”

Indeed not, Guv’nor! He was talking about the recent devastating bushfires – or as you in the States call ‘em wildfires – but his words apply equally aptly to Human Induced Rapid Global Overheating (HIRGO) as well. Even though sadly stupidly Governor Perry denies that whole climatology problem is even real and has, so I gather, cut the number of firefighters whilst insisting on Texans praying for rain as his preferred solution.

That was seen on SBS World News (Australian TV) Tuesday 6th Sept. 2011 6.30 pm. The news segued from reporting on those Texan wildfires into a story about an ominous new hurricane off the US eastern coast and followed mention of the drought* and heatwave that helped the wildfires get so severe. Go figure.

Actually I don’t understand how more folks including even the likes of Rick Perry cannot seem to make the rather obvious connections here.

* Click on my name for the latest ‘Climate Crock’ youtube clip that discusses the Texas drought and climatic implications on it in more detail.

Perhaps I’m the only one who sees irony in a bullet point saying Congress won’t appropriate $322M for an NOAA climate change service, while then immediately below it noting how the natural disasters that have befallen this country have required ” historic levels of relief and recovery assistance”, necessitating $2.3 billion in relief funds. Hmmm.

There’s that certainly. But what struck me was the call for a *new* NOAA Climate Service. It leaves me wondering why do they need a new one – what’s wrong the “old” NOAA Climate Service?!

Plus too that “Climate Service” name sounds odd to me – a bit like they are providing the climate to everyone and taking orders on what the climate does, which, yeah, not-so-much.

Maybe worth changing to Climate Research Organisation or Climate Studies Sector or suchlike?

@#11 Jamesonian: Why are people so resistant to scientific evidence? Global warming. Vaccination. Stem cell. Why? Why do so many people reject evidence when presented with it?

Because nobody gets taught how to think critically anymore? Because people confuse “Everyone has a right to an opinion” with “Everyone’s opinion should be given equal consideration, no matter what their credentials are.”?

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Eventually the two are linked by time and causation.

And all the while, items that really do eat up the budget are left relatively untouched….

Answer: 2232 days and counting, and we will obviously surpass the record.

Here:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/–BFAoLMt-fE/TtOgHP83dTI/AAAAAAAABV8/Vkr83aO0DpQ/s1600/daysbtcat3%252Bus.hurrs.jpg