Solar Storms Affirmative – 4 Week Lab [1/3]
Satellite Data K2 Solve Warming
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- The aff sustains the climate knowledge infrastructure -- prerequisite to effectiveness of any climate solution. Lewis et al., 2010
Satellite Data K2 Solve WarmingSatellites help predict global warming. West, No Date (Larry, journalist specializing in environmental studies, “Budget Cuts and Mismanagement Place Environmental Satellites at Risk”, About.com: Environmental Issues, http://environment.about.com/od/environmentallawpolicy/a/satellites.htm, CL) Budget cuts and cost overruns are threatening the current integrity and future existence of a network of U.S. environmental satellites that help scientists forecast hurricanes, droughts and floods, and predict global warming, according to a news story by the Associated Press. "The system of environmental satellites is at risk of collapse," said Richard A. Anthes, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and chairman of a National Academy of Sciences committee that advises the federal government on developing and operating environmental satellites, in an interview with the Associated Press. "Every year that goes by without the system being addressed is a problem." Satellites Give Warning Before Disasters Strike Scientists say that neglecting the environmental satellites orbiting the Earth could have severe human consequences. If the environmental satellites aren’t there to provide up-to-date information about approaching natural disasters and threats from other severe climate and weather conditions, then scientists will be unable to warn the people most likely to be harmed and the public safety officials who must try to protect them. Yet, at a time when the United States is still recovering from the worst hurricane season on record, when Africa and South America are experiencing devastating droughts, and when regions worldwide are feeling the first effects of global warming, NASA is managing its budget as though extreme weather and natural disasters were passé. In an effort to save money, NASA has canceled plans for at least three earth-observing satellites, and cost overruns have delayed a new generation of weather satellites until 2010 or 2012. The Government Accounting Office has called the entire U.S. environmental satellite effort “a program in crisis.” Balancing Budgets and Priorities NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has the difficult job of trying to stretch his shrinking budget to cover the cost of operating the space shuttle and the space station as well as space exploration and programs such as the environmental satellites. NASA’s proposed budget for 2007 includes $6.2 billion for space shuttle and space station operations, and $4 billion for planning future missions to the moon and Mars, but only $2.2 billion for satellites that help scientists observe the Earth and the sun. "We simply cannot afford all of the missions that our scientific constituencies would like us to sponsor," Griffin told members of Congress when he testified before the House Science Committee on Feb. 16, 2006. Perhaps not, but it seems as though humanity’s critical need for the information that environmental satellites provide should place them higher on NASA’s list of priorities. The aff sustains the climate knowledge infrastructure -- prerequisite to effectiveness of any climate solution. Lewis et al., 2010 [James A., Director and Senior Fellow, Technology and Public Policy Program – CSIS, Sarah O. Ladislaw, Senior Fellow, Energy and National Security Program – CSIS, Denise E. Zheng, Congressional Staffer - Salary Data, “Earth Observation for Climate Change,” June, http://csis.org/files/publication/100608_Lewis_EarthObservation_WEB.pdf] Slowly, painfully, we are developing a new policy framework that we hope will enable our society to cope with a changing climate. But currently we do not have in place the necessary “knowledge infrastructure” to make this new system work. As we develop new policies, we are confronted with critical questions of capacity and responsibility for this endeavor. The scientific community has done a great deal to study the nature and pace of global climate change and increase our understanding of these global phenomena—both in terms of what we know and what we do not know. Now, as policymakers, businesses, the international community, and households consider ways to reduce emissions in the hope of avoiding the most severe effects of a changing climate, build more resilient infrastructure and systems to withstand the unavoidable impacts of climate change, and plan for dealing with climate-related disasters, our ability to provide decisionmakers with the information that they need must grow and improve. Among many complex issues, we need to understand climate-related trends as they apply to state and local communities; we must decide how to monitor emissions and check results against agreed-upon reductions and expected outcomes; we must address how to better model the economic effects of emissions reductions plans and a changing natural environment in ways that will help us understand the impact of new climate policies. We need to establish methods of assessing the relative costs and benefits of more aggressive action that will allow us to prioritize actions to take for climate change, and, of course, we need to continuously improve on understanding how and why the Earth’s climate is changing so as to build greater certainty into policy efforts. This is a daunting task for government, which must manage information on an unprecedented scale. Federal agencies will have to translate vast quantities of scientific data into knowledge that can guide policymakers and administrators. Currently, the federal government is generating enormous amounts of data and analysis on the Earth’s climate, on ocean temperatures and currents, on jet streams and Arctic ice melt. Over time, our ability to monitor emissions and understand important feedbacks, including societal adjustments to the policies in place as well as a changing climate, will need to improve and expand. The government does have an excellent starting point with the work of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the Earth observation functions supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NOAA has made tremendous efforts, working with foreign partners to create the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). This network seeks to provide global, real-time data in an open, collaborative, and transparent way. But the implementation of GEOSS has not progressed much beyond developing a blueprint for the system.1 To establish a new policy framework for addressing these challenges, the federal government must ask and answer the question: Where do we attain knowledge, process it, and make policy on such an enormous scale? The United States has the opportunity to build the knowledge platform we will need to help inform the hard decisions that lie ahead. The 2008 CSIS report, CSIS Commission on Smart Power: A Smarter, More Secure America, called for the United States to find ways for “investing in the global good.” The report highlighted five critical areas for engagement, including technology and innovation. It singled out climate change as an issue that required American leadership to help establish global consensus and develop innovative solutions to manage a new and complex global challenge. Climate change is a global challenge, but it is also an opportunity for the United States to build its global leadership. Now is the time for the current administration to build up the knowledge infrastructure for climate change. It will clearly take a team effort to coordinate resources, streamline decisionmaking, and disseminate information, perhaps as part of a new National Climate Service, to start now to build this critical knowledge infrastructure. Without the knowledge this infrastructure would establish and a realistic process to manage it, we will be sailing in uncharted waters with rumored and uncertain landmarks. 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