Trump’s Budget Will Slash Climate Change–Related NASA Missions

"The administration wants to NASA to reprioritize the moon and Mars, and forget 'Earth-centric research'".

"One small step for Trump, one giant leap towards Earth’s catastrophic demise.

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that America will once again “reach for the moon.” According to a White House press release, Trump signed a space policy directive enabling NASA to “pursue extraterrestrial exploration,” meaning Mars and moon missions. This newfound focus doesn’t come without a sacrifice though, one that wasn’t clearly noted in the administration’s press release.

According to the proposed 2018 federal budget, which explains in more detail Trump’s vision for NASA’s priorities in 2018, four climate-change focused missions could be eliminated in lieu of the new direction: the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem satellite (PACE); the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 experiment (OCO-3); the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder; and the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR)."

Nicole Karlis reports for Salon December 11, 2017.