Paul Scott has endured some nervous moments since the
election in November. As lead scientist
in the NASA office that analyzes satellite images of the earth, he has been at
the center of controversy over the role of government agencies in studying
climate change. "We were basically
shut down on January 22. We come to
work, and we still go through the motions, but were told not to publish anything until further notice. I mean, we used to
issue two or three briefings a day. And
we were always tweeting links to new images." So it was strange last week when the acting
division director called him in to say that he had an assignment straight from
the White House. "All Arvid knew
was that they wanted me to review something.
So I'm thinking, do they want me to sign off on some statement
that there's no reliable evidence for global warming?" Later that day, a Secret Service agent
arrived at NASA headquarters and escorted Scott into a private room. "I could only open the envelope in front
of him." The envelope included one
hand-written page, along with instructions not to mark the page but to note corrections using a sticky note -- the Secret Service agent promptly produced a
pad. "It took me a moment to
figure out that this looked like a little kid's science homework. There was this title 'Our Friends the
Stars,' it was printed in pencil, and the writing was uneven. I thought kids used computers these
days! But, it was just a pretty
straightforward description of the solar system. I just wrote a note about how, technically,
these are planets, not stars, and explained how most astronomers no longer
consider Uranus to be a planet, but other than that, gold star." The
Secret Service agent resealed the envelope and hurried out of the room,
breaking into a full sprint in the hallway.
"I guess it was nice to feel useful, but I'd prefer it
if they would just let us do our job."
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