Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Mother Jones reports that the CIA Medea programme, a climate research effort which involved providing civilian experts with access to classified information, is to be shut down.
According to Mother Jones;
The program was originally launched in 1992 during the George H.W. Bush administration and was later shut down during President George W. Bush’s term. It was re-launched under the Obama administration in 2010, with the aim of providing security clearances to roughly 60 climate scientists. Those scientists were given access to classified information that could be useful for researching global warming and tracking environmental changes that could have national security implications.
Some experts have expressed surprise the Medea programme is being shut down. But the programme is not without its critics.
Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a 23-year veteran of the CIA who had first-hand knowledge of the program before leaving the agency in 2009. He said he was not surprised to see Medea close down.
“In my judgment, the CIA is not the best lead agency for the issue; the agency’s ‘in-box’ is already overflowing with today’s threats and challenges,” he said via email. “CIA has little strategic planning reserves, relatively speaking, and its overseas presence is heavily action-oriented.”
The programme also attracted criticism from members of the US government:
… when CIA Director Leon Panetta stood up the climate change center in 2009, conservative lawmakers attempted to block its funding.
“The CIA’s resources should be focused on monitoring terrorists in caves, not polar bears on icebergs,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said at the time.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/10/106406/why-the-cia-is-spying-on-a-changing.html
Here’s a new hypothesis. The urge to classify was dependent on the need to keep imaging capability secret and now that much of the rest of the world exceeds our capacity, there is no longer any need to keep our capabilities secret.
Yep, that’s the tikket.
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That’s exacty right. But closet industries develop within the Agency and entire careers are then devoted to keeping stuff secret, whether it’s obsolete or not. Breaking down those walls can be difficult. In this particular case, I think the scientists were right to push declassication; sort of like an early crowd sourcing effort. Whether Gore already had the idea to use the imagery to create his own climate alarm industry I can’t say. The scientists just wanted more eyes analyzing the pictures at a low cost.
I heard an old-timer once relate how Departments of Syphilogy persisted in Medical Schools long after the introduction of penicillin. Those departmental experts even persisted, but wisely eventually started calling themselves dermatologists.
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Dr. Albert Wheelon…
I was fortunate enough to be a friend Dr. Wheelon’s. He explains the whole thing here.
Unfortunately I can’t get the video for some reason, but the audio download works fine. Well worth listening to.
http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/colloq/wheelon1/
I’m a bit surprised CIA climate research is being decommissioned right after the President gave a speech naming climate change our greatest risk. If Obama is asking the military to fight climate change, why wouldn’t he want the CIA to provide intelligence for their upcoming battles? Without proper “intelligence,” they might end up tilting at windmills. On second thought, any attack on climate change is going to be an attack on an imaginary enemy anyway, so no intelligence needed.
But what really surprises me is that they don’t seem to have thought this through. Giving security clearances to climate scientists is a great way for government to not only direct climate research but to control the release of information. All they would have to do is say, “Sorry, we can’t respond to your FOIA request because the data are classified.” They could also threaten researchers who attempt to report “skeptical” findings with violating national security by revealing classified information. It’s just not like this administration to pass up the opportunity to completely control the climate narrative.
The correlation of what Obama says with what he does is <0. I think even his supporters agree.
Don’t be alarmed, this expenditure has been part of “erring on the side of caution” in regards to climate change.
Do I need proof of sarcasm on that remark?
who will leak the names of the 60 scientists?
(tho, by the sounds of it, there’s potentially a lot more than 60 in cahoots with the CIA outside the Medea program)
amusingly, those commenting at motherjones seem quite happy about CIA involvement! lol.
It’s no surprise the CIA is involved. It’s always been about world government and the CIA no doubt were mainly concerned about how to secure the world’s resources under the pretexts of global warming and how to put pressure on world leaders to play ball.
After all the CIA has nothing to do with ‘National Security’ and everything to do with guarding the interests of their central banking Oligarch masters.
Due to the increase of the GCR for about 10 days can be predicted block of the southern polar vortex.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat_a_f/gif_files/gfs_t50_sh_f240.gif
Graphics shows the current pressure distribution in the lower stratosphere in the north.
http://oi60.tinypic.com/rclef6.jpg
The area darker (lower pressure) shows the circulation in the upper troposphere.