Trump to Shut Down NASA Earth Science; What Will Happen to the Planet?

NASA's Earth science division is hanging on a balance as President-elect Donald Trump released a statement that budgeting for climate change funding, NASA, and other science organizations would be cut down to a significantly low workable amount. With the Earth science program aimed to advance and develop further understanding of the Earth's systems and its changes, what will happen if NASA Earth science does shut down?

It is one of Trump's goals to completely strip NASA Earth science of funding. According to Oliver Milman's report on the Guardian, Trump has decided to relocate the funding to deep space exploration than focusing on the home planet. It has been in his campaign that he wants all the nicks and crannies of the Solar System to be explored by the end of the century.

According to an interview with Trump's senior campaign supervisor, they believe that the concept of "climate change" is highly politicized and cannot be considered as "solid science." It is in their best intentions to just let other agencies to focus on what they call as "Earth Centric Work" and let NASA do all the more scientifically important matters.

The study of the Earth's systems gives scientists a better understanding of the different changes that it undergoes, whether natural or man-made. This kind of understanding helps in the prediction of hazards and calamities that could happen on Earth. With NASA as one of the most influential scientific organizations in the world, its shutdown could create an imbalance in the progress the scientific communities in the world have already made.

David Biello from PBS Newshour explained that pertinent data has been provided by this section of NASA to scientists, urban planners, environmental enthusiasts, and people who work toward the sustainable development of societies in the world. If NASA closes down, all data that could be extracted from their systems would take time to be furthered.