livescience | Whether fiscal, political or global, we are living in an environment of
change. Unfortunately, although our natural environment is changing
drastically, our national response to deal with it is not.
During last Thursday's House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the fiscal year 2014 budget,
Chairman Frank Wolf and Ranking Member Chaka Fattah cautioned those
present that the nation's fiscal situation simply will not allow for new
funding or the expansion of programs. As I sat there listening in full
agreement, I couldn't help but wonder why there haven't been more
solutions put forward to improve current investments in numerous areas
related to commerce, justice and science. Surely, this is a problem we —
the most technologically advanced nation in the world — can fix.
Our environmental information capability is a good example. Extreme
weather and climatic events have had tremendous social and economic
impacts on the nation. Numerous respected institutions, such as the
National Research Council and the Government Accountability Office
(GAO), have repeatedly called attention to the decline of U.S.
Earth-monitoring capabilities such as vital weather satellites. Yet, we
have not seen any change in how that investment is made or managed.
Just two weeks ago, GAO added weather satellites to its high-risk list,
citing concerns over a potential gap in weather satellite coverage of
17 to 53 months beginning in 2014. As reported broadly through the media
these last few weeks, our nation has now fallen behind Europe in
weather forecast modeling. The Reinsurance Association of America
estimates the insured value of U.S. coasts at $9 trillion, yet the
country has only a small, emerging, operational ocean-observing
capability. Despite more than 60 percent of the continental U.S.
experiencing drought last summer, our national drought monitoring and
forecasting capabilities continue to face funding challenges.
Finally, while more and more national security experts identify climate
change as a major threat, the country has yet to establish an
operational long-term forecasting capability. Our nation's annual
investment in that area is estimated at $3 billion, spread across 17
federal agencies. Considering the following statistics from Munich
Reinsurance's U.S. Natural Catastrophe Update for 2012, shouldn't we be asking whether this amount, and how it is being invested, is adequate to protect America's future?
