#climate-science

#climate-science

There's a sense of dread at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab these days as thousands of scientists, researchers, students and staff wait to see whether entire divisions will be decimated by budget cuts. President Donald Trump's Department of Energy proposed a budget in May that would slash support for biological and environmental research by 54% and support for energy efficiency and renewable energy by 74%.

Earlier this year, we were critical of the US's National Academies of Science for seemingly refusing to respond to the Trump administration's attacks on science. That reticence appeared to end in August with the release of the DOE climate report and the announcement that the EPA was using that report as the latest word on climate science, which it argued had changed considerably since the initial EPA decisions on this issue in 2009.

It is critical that federal policymaking is informed by the best available scientific evidence. Decades of climate research have yielded expanded understanding of how greenhouse gases affect the climate.

There’s memory everywhere, DelViscio says. Cores like these reveal our planet's climate history, and the rock below Greenland's ice will help scientists learn when the island was last ice-free.

At risk is research that would develop next-generation climate models, track the planet's changing oceans, and explore the Solar System.