President Trump Appoints New NASA Chief

Jim Bridenstine and President Trump, Public Domain Photos

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

All the right people are complaining about President Trump’s new NASA chief Jim Bridenstine, who once demanded an apology from Obama for squandering money on climate research.

NASA Statement on Nomination for Agency Administrator

Sept. 2, 2017

RELEASE 17-071

The following is a statement from acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot on Friday’s announcement of the intended nomination by President Donald Trump of U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine to serve as the 13th NASA administrator:

“I am pleased to have Rep. Bridenstine nominated to lead our team. Of course, the nomination must go through the Senate confirmation process, but I look forward to ensuring a smooth transition and sharing the great work the NASA team is doing.

“I look forward to working with a new leadership team, and the administration, on NASA’s ongoing mission of exploration and discovery. Our history is amazing, and our future is even brighter, as we continue to build on this nation’s incredible global leadership in human exploration, science, aeronautics and technology.”

Bridenstine, a pilot in the U.S. Navy Reserve and former executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium, was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2012 to represent Oklahoma’s First Congressional District. He currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

For information about NASA’s missions, discoveries and activities, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-statement-on-nomination-for-agency-administrator

The new NASA appointment has been greeted with horror by climate activists;

Trump names climate science denier to run NASA

Republican Congressman had demanded Obama apologize for funding climate change research

JOE ROMM

SEP 2, 2017, 3:58 PM

In a Friday night news dump, the White House announced that President Donald Trump Plans to nominate Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), a climate science denier to be administrator of NASA.

Bridenstine is a politician without any scientific credentials, unlike previous NASA chiefs, and for that reason his nomination has already been criticized by both Florida’s senators Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D), Politico reports. Rubio said, “I just think [his nomination] could be devastating for the space program.”

NASA scientists have led the way in documenting the scientific reality of climate change. But in 2013, Bridenstine not only gave a speech on the House floor filled with standard denier talking points, he actually ended his remarks with a demand that President Obama apologize for funding research into climate science.

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-names-climate-science-denier-to-run-nasa-c9a46a6f4a52/

In the video Bridenstine mentions the global warming pause, and criticises then President Obama for squandering money on global warming, instead of focussing on saving lives with better weather forecasting.

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Thomas Homer
September 4, 2017 5:40 am

“NASA scientists have led the way in documenting the scientific reality of climate change.”
If NASA had any ‘scientific reality’ to apply, they would already have an answer for how much heat the Mars” atmosphere ‘traps’ and for how long. Can land a craft on an asteroid, but can’t measure a ‘scientific reality’?

Taylor Ponlman
Reply to  Thomas Homer
September 4, 2017 6:57 am

Yes, Mars with its nearly 100% (albeit thin) CO2 atmosphere. I wonder if the amount of Martian CO2 is similar to Earth’s? Could be, but without water vapor, it’s a pretty cold place. Anybody have the data on that?

Mayor of Venus
Reply to  Taylor Ponlman
September 4, 2017 4:00 pm

Certainly.
Mars has much less carbon dioxide than Venus, but much more than Earth. Surface pressure of Earth’s atmosphere about 1000 mbar, and 0.04% carbon dioxide, so 0.4 mbar partial pressure of carbon dioxide. Mars surface pressure about 6 mbar, almost totally carbon dioxide. So Mars has about 15 times more carbon dioxide than Earth per unit surface area. Earth is bigger, of course, so Mar’s total amount is about 6 times Earth’s.
Venus has about 200,000 times more carbon dioxide than Earth’s atmosphere. We’re not counting our carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans.

Greg
Reply to  Thomas Homer
September 4, 2017 3:47 pm

LOL. do we talk about the “scientific reality” of the ideal gas laws, the “scientific reality” of magnetic fields; the “scientific reality” evaporation?
No, because when something is a the “scientific reality” you do not need to keep calling it one. By calling it “scientific reality” of climate change Romm is pleading. He is trying to assert it as a reality because he knows it is NOT a reality but an unproven hypothesis.

Edwin
September 4, 2017 8:14 am

Having worked we every federal scientific program, including NASA and most of the states on the East Coast, scientists and engineers do not necessarily make greatest of administrators. A NASA Administrator must know the programs, policies, personnel management and budget he doesn’t necessarily need to know the details of the science. Nor do they need to be a scientists to understand the scientific policies of NASA. In fact I would argue that what is needed is an objective look from outside the various scientific fields included in NASA. If someone claims NASA administrator must be a scientists or engineer, in what field of study? Some in NASA have certainly demonstrated in recent years that “good science” was not their primary goal.

JimG1
September 4, 2017 8:40 am

Mars atmospheric pressure=0.6% of earth pressure. Venus=9000+% earth pressure. Both atmospheres are mostly co2. Mars atmosphere very cold. Venus very hot. Guess which one the warmists like to use as the proof that co2 causes catastrophic warming? Guess they don’t understand temperature pressure relationships or the effect of proximity to the sun.

Taylor Ponlman
Reply to  JimG1
September 4, 2017 8:58 am

Did a quick look up. Martian atmosphere is reported to be 1/206 of Earth’s by weight. Given that Martian atmosphere is roughly 95% CO2, that worked out to the equivalent of 465 ppm of CO2 if that same amount was on earth. Where’s the Martian warming? BTW, water vapor on Mars reported as about 100ppm.
Net, net, “it’s the sun, stupid!” (And of course, the pressure gradient).

JimG1
September 4, 2017 9:13 am

This new guy looks just fine to me. Better qualified than Obama was to be president, or anything else other than a trouble making neighborhood organizer. Rubio needs to put a sock in it. McCain is just trying to get back at Trump for some of his stupider remarks about him and is starting to, as a result, look petty and possibly a little senile or perhaps suffering from his very unfortunate brain tumor. In any event, McCain gave much for his country and it is sad to see him now being a negative factor.

September 4, 2017 9:55 am

Joe Romm is a long-time far left political operative who will argue the climate alarmists’ cases regardless of merit . “Rubio said, “I just think [his nomination] could be devastating for the space program.” but really meant devastating for Florida’s cash flow. Where are the the statesmen when the country needs them?

papiertigre
Reply to  Tom Bjorklund
September 4, 2017 12:49 pm

Actually Romm only argues one usually tangential point to any honest disagreement that appears in his comment section, and wrongly at that, then immediately bans whomever posted it and declares himself the winner.

Reply to  papiertigre
September 4, 2017 2:45 pm

I am beginning to doubt the veracity of Joe Romm’s credentials. Anyone who has a knee-jerk far left response to every challenge of the climate alarmists’ narrative is flat out not credible. I suspect Romm’s contributions to citations in his Wikipedia biography are grossly overblown, but who has time to waste to check them. His only exposure to science appears to have been at MIT where he was awarded a PhD. in physics. Since Romm graduated, I could not find a single significant scientific publication on climate science in which he was the primary author.
Romm’s experience is not easy to characterize. He has been an organizer, a coordinator, a compiler, a reporter, an author, a speaker, an advocate, a commentator, a green blogger, a green energy lobbyist, a policy advisor but never a serious scientist who would be comfortable “getting into the “weeds” of climate science. His career has been archetypal of how to move through a series of government staff jobs and then migrate to private organizations that are funded by governments grant and need a former insider’s contacts. Nothing I see would qualify Romm as an climate.expert. I suggest that he is simply an opportunist.

tomwys1
September 10, 2017 8:55 pm

We CAN make NASA great again! A great challenge for Bridenstine , and a gift for the Nation!!!