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The CIA Is Shuttering a Secretive Climate Research Program

posted by martyb on Monday May 25 2015, @01:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the changed-research-climate-changes-climate-research dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Scientists used the Medea program to study how global warming could worsen conflict. Now that project has come to an end.

Some national security experts were surprised to learn that an important component of that effort has been ended. A CIA spokesperson confirmed to Climate Desk that the agency is shuttering its main climate research program. Under the program, known as Medea, the CIA had allowed civilian scientists to access classified data—such as ocean temperature and tidal readings gathered by Navy submarines and topography data collected by spy satellites—in an effort to glean insights about how global warming could create security threats around the world.In theory, the program benefited both sides: Scientists could study environmental data that was much higher-resolution than they would normally have access to, and the CIA received research insights about climate-related threats.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/05/cia-closing-its-main-climate-research-program

[Medea: Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis. - Ed]

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @11:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @11:25PM (#187774)

    Our world is better than it ever has been and the trend is continuing.

    I want to know who made the world a better place than it used to be.

    Was it regular people working their asses off for human improvement and making the world a better place for all, or was it because of some military?

  • (Score: 1) by WillAdams on Tuesday May 26 2015, @01:30PM

    by WillAdams (1424) on Tuesday May 26 2015, @01:30PM (#188004)

    Given that one of the impetuses behind the American Revolution was the British failing to do anything about the Barbary Pirates, and that having been an early priority of the nascent U.S. Government's military (Halls of Montezuma and the Shores of Tripoli and all that), one has to give some credence to the military's rôle in enabling the fourth of the "four freedoms":

    * Freedom of speech
    * Freedom of worship
    * Freedom from want
    * Freedom from fear

    • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:28PM

      by Alfred (4006) on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:28PM (#188112) Journal

      * Freedom from want
      * Freedom from fear

      These are not possible. Everyone will always fear something and always want something else. No .gov entity can fix these and don't pretend they can. You can be reasonably free of either but not completely.

      I believe you more likely meant a subset of fear like "Freedom from fear of pirates at sea." Yes the Military was instrumental in taking care of that so we didn't have to pay out for "protection" anymore.