This week has been a dizzying one for people working to understand and combat global warming.
Tweets on climate change from the account of the Badlands National Park . Plans to scrub climate information from Environmental Protection Agency websiteswere . Then, news broke that the budget for the EPA may be cut by .
Some of those reports may not be born out, but the furious pace of the news has researchers in Texas wondering about the future of the collection and availability of climate data.
In a way, it鈥檚 nothing new.
Bill Fisher has taught earth sciences at UT, Austin for 57 years, so he鈥檚 seen a lot of shifts in federal research fundingdepending on who鈥檚 in the oval office.
鈥淓veryone that鈥檚 interested in doing research would like to have it consistent,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 probably unrealistic. Priorities come and go, there are some things that are not funded much now because it鈥檚 not as critical as it was 40 years ago.鈥�
But, when it comes to climate change, Fisher, who is not a climatologist, thinks it makes sense to keep up research.
Nonetheless, given indications from the Trump administration, manyexpectcuts to climate research funding.
At a meeting of the American Metrological Association this week, a NASA official that his agency hadn鈥檛 been contacted by the administration about cuts yet.
Texas State Climatologist was at that conference. He says there are concern is that even a temporary suspension of funding for NASA could have long-term impacts.
鈥淭he thing you absolutely need for climate change research is continuity of observation,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f you suddenly break off that endeavor, not only does it mean you鈥檙e missing future observations but the observations you鈥檝e already collected suddenly become less valuable. It would be a terrible loss.鈥�
Beyond cuts to research, people are also worried about the availability of data.
The news that EPA climate web pages may be removed provoked a lot of outcry. But many scientists use more obscure government websites that fewer people even know about.
Nielsen Gammon says he uses data maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
鈥淚 relied on their data to know that October and November combined in Texas averaged between five and six degrees above normal,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hich is why the leaves were so late to drop this year.鈥�
Neilsen-Gammon says people in Texas care about what just happened or what鈥檚 going to happen. He says that includes those who don鈥檛 share the scientific consensus about manmade climate change.
, for example, is skeptical of much of the accepted science about global warming.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 share the view that the science is settled. I think there鈥檚 a lot of issues out there that we need to understand in a much much better way,鈥� he says. 鈥淐limate sensitivity is certainly at the forefront of that.鈥�
Still, that may be a good reason to fund the research.
鈥淩esearch in that area is worthwhile to be sure,鈥� he says, 鈥淎nything that even remotely has some of the consequences that some people think [global warming] might have is obviously worth exploration. I don鈥檛 think any sensible person would argue that."
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