Editorial: Fight push to curb climate science

It would be foolish and potentially fatal to tear down the warning sirens that alert the unsuspecting to an approaching tsunami, flood or wildfire, just because disasters don’t happen every year or on a predictable schedule. And we know that deaths from lung and heart disease will increase if we return to a time when cars and factories belched exhaust black with carbon. It’s equally reckless to tear down observatories and squelch scientific research critical to understanding climate change and developing a protective response — and simply wrong to lift pollution controls and suppress cleaner technology.

It’s necessary, therefore, to speak out against actions being undertaken by the federal administration that endanger Hawaii and the nation. One of the latest blows is a direct hit: A proposal to close the Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii island, along with monitoring stations in Alaska, American Samoa and the geographic South Pole used to measure global carbon dioxide —  along with  almost all of the climate research overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Mauna Loa is central to the history of climate science. Researchers begain monitoring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere above the mammoth volcano in 1958. Over the decades, the chart measuring that carbon curved steadily upward, as did carbon pollution. The “Keeling curve” is one of the strongest and most well-known pieces of evidence for the relationship between carbon pollution and global warming, making the disregard for science shown in cutting down this research all the more painful.

Mauna Loa researchers track methane, another greenhouse gas, and aerosols and other chemicals that deplete the protective ozone layer, along with other pollutants. Climate phenomena such as solar radiation and wind patterns are also tracked. All this data is the central source of the science documenting carbon’s rapid rise in the atmosphere and connecting climate change to its causes.

The sensitive readings at Mauna Loa have also contributed to advances in predicting consequences of global warming — the changed atmospheric patterns that cause extreme events like heat waves, droughts and floods, and disasters such as wildfires that may accompany them. The research also helps scientists determine whether climate policies are effective — essential information for governments.

Rick Spinrad, NOAA’s previous administrator, has a dire warning. “It’s not just the climate mission that gets compromised,” he said. “It’s the ability to protect people and property for things like wildfire.”

The feds’ determination to kill climate science and environmental protections places little value on science, or protecting the nation. This week, it was reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to “remove” the scientific finding that greenhouse gases emitted by combustion engines in vehicles endangers the public health and welfare — as if documented scientific findings can be ordered away. The agency plans to repeal emission standards for “light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty” vehicles — in direct conflict with data showing that heavily traveled roads and highways even now expose many to unhealthy air pollution.

This state and its people can push back via federal courts and political activism, and state and local action. Hawaii cannot compensate for the lost federal support, but the state can support the University of Hawaii and other organizations in preserving the science used and information gathered. Like California, the state may have its own regulatory tools, which if backed by science, should be employed.

Similarly, backed by the known hazards of carbon pollution and climate change, it’s essential to speak out and demand a halt to federal assaults on science, the environment and human health.