America Starts to Pull Out of Antarctica
Planning and Implementation of Caretaker Status for U.S. Antarctic Program
“The National Science Foundation (NSF) is responsible for managing and coordinating the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) on behalf of the nation. This includes providing support personnel and facilities and coordinating transportation and other logistics for scientific research. Due to the lapse in appropriation, funds for this support will be depleted on or about October 14, 2013. Without additional funding, NSF has directed its Antarctic support contractor to begin planning and implementing caretaker status for research stations, ships and other assets. The agency is required to take this step as a result of the absence of appropriation and the Antideficiency Act.”
Keith’s note: There is a Change.org petition titled “Congress: Shutdown Exemption for the United States Antarctic Program”.
The procession of lost assets has clearly begun. And I think we all know that many of these disappearing assets are not going to reappear when (if) Congress gets the country up and running again. Could this possibility be what they were after with their bizarre non-plan? To save money by eliminating things that could not otherwise be eliminated?
I think it’s worth saying that while certain elements of the government continue to fart around accomplishing nothing useful, the American citizens, the people who really made this country, continue to soldier on, living their lives, running their companies, and providing for their families, despite the nonsense in D.C.
Hang in there folks, and remember this come the next election for Senators.
…Or House Representatives as the case may be…
Vote in 2014!!!
Ironically they’re just going to make the deficit worse by killing GDP (http://www.bloomberg.com/ne…. Japan tried this over 10 years ago and it was an epic fail.
http://www.bloomberg.com/ne…
Next to the ISS this is one of the best resources for data on long term space flight, the conditions in Antarctica provide great metrics for a base on the Moon or Mars. Shuttering the facility is unwise, and must be stopped, their hydroponics facility is providing excellent feedback on closed loop systems over long periods.
There’s much more science going on in Antarctica than that and all of it is just as important if not more so.
The private and university contractors work from federal funds. If the federal funds are expected to lapse, they have to shutdown. There is going to be a large back log in funding disbursements for grants issued with 2013 money. I have colleagues who are still waiting for funds from FY13. This is a disaster.
G.
A lot of what goes on in Antarctica, at least on the American side, is funded by NSF. The NSF funded stuff is getting shut down, and much of it is critical research.