Basically Ted Cruz doesn't want NASA using its money to learn about earth. I wonder why that would be.... [quote] One of the most prominent skeptics of climate change has been Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and he leaped at the opportunity to battle with a NASA official who appeared at a Senate subcommittee hearing, questioning why the agency should be spending money focused on such missions. Many suspect that Cruz, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, is eager to cut funding to NASA to help halt climate change research, and he sparred with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden over why Congress should continue to fund the agency’s dual missions of studying space from Earth and studying Earth from space, according to a Christian Science Monitor report. Cruz is the new chair of the Senate’s subcommittee on space, science, and competitive ever since the Republican Party swept the midterm elections and retook control of the Senate. He’s used his new position to push the idea that NASA should be focused more on space and less on Earth. During a hearing on President Obama’s $18.5 billion budget request for NASA for fiscal 2016, he started out by asking NASA Administrator Charles Bolden what the core mission of NASA is. Bolden responded that the core mission from the beginning has been to explore space and the Earthe nvironment. Cruz didn’t appear to agree with that answer, adding that most Americans see its mission as to explore space, which is “what inspires little boys and little girls across this country.” He said he was “concerned” that NASA has lost touch with that focus, and began referring to charts showing that Earth sciences funding has increased 41 percent while space exploration has dropped 7.6 percent since 2009. Bolden argued that Earth-science research had allowed NASA to better understand the Earth than ever before. Why does Cruz seem particularly bothered by NASA conducting Earth-focused research? Although he didn’t come out and say it, Cruz has long been a climate change doubter, and doesn’t want NASA to look into the issue as he thinks there’s no point because global warming doesn’t exist, despite nearly all scientists agreeing that the phenomenon is real. Cruz’s selection as chair of this particular subcommittee raised eyebrows due to his long history of being opposed to NASA’s work. NASA has spent $1 billion each year on Earth science, and the agency has good reason to be worried about climate change, as the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., is in danger of being flooded should sea levels rise. Already, 100 feet of beach next to the launch pads have been lost to rising sea levels since 2003, prompting the agency to spend nearly $3 million on a mile-long dune to protect the launch pads, with more dunes planned. [/quote]