Re: Caveat
Yup, and they're complaining as well. But that's politics. The US is currently doing much horse-trading to approve a budget and prevent another government shutdown. The political aspect is 'right sizing' US Federal spending so it's more efficient and affordable. Currently there's a lot of overlap with departments doing climate stuff, so scope for cuts.
One possibility would be to survey the 25,000 or so AGU attendees in New Orleans to see how many are Federal employees, who they're working for and what they're doing. Climate stuff is high on the AGU's agenda, but other geoscientists need funding as well. That's the issue with NASA. It's the Federal agency that put men on the moon, but then got turned into an agency that hacks together temperature models. NOAA can and does do that as well. NASA's space budget has been steadily cut though from it's glory days. Refocusing it on space is, IMHO a worthy goal, especially if you want to get kids interested in STEM.. Or just be the first to start a moon base and nab the best spot.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
