NASA's Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet - New York Times

From the New York Times: NASA's Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet - New York Times By ANDREW C. REVKINPublished: July 22, 2006 From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.” In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted. In this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s mission is “to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.” *** That the Administration would remove understanding and protecting our home planet from NASA's mission statement, especially at this time is mind boggling. NASA has been playing an important role in developing our understanding of global warming and climate change. How can we continue to research what may well be the biggest global threat humanity has ever faced without the dedicated efforts of the world's premiere space agency that provides so much information through satellite observations of the entire globe and the atmosphere. And besides, Dr. James E. Hansen, a climate scientist at NASA, has been one of the leading voices who recognizes and understands this issue. If the United States would apply the resources and skills of NASA and its network of high technology contractors to the development of technologies for energy conservation and regenerable alternative energy resources, we might not only save the world from the consequences of global warming but open the door to economic opportunities to rival or exceed the Industrial and Information Revolutions. The 21st Century can and must be the century of the Energy Revolution if we are to preserve a livable world for generations to come.