The people at Fox News are not exactly scientific experts — experts at fear-mongering — but not science. Two years ago, they told a science writer not to talk about climate change during his appearance. They even had a host say she wanted to take math classes out of schools because she wasn’t good at it.
Well, this year we had some beautiful pictures of Pluto released by NASA. The New Horizons spacecraft took lots of pictures of the planet during its fly-by. Now, the spacecraft is headed towards the Kuiper Belt on the outer edges of the solar system.
This is a ring of icy worlds just beyond Pluto.
Greta Van Susteren thought that these stunning discoveries were not that impressive apparently. She was upset that NASA is using our tax dollars for this type of thing. I guess she expects her pictures to travel faster than the speed of light.
Here is her annoyed tweet about this:
Why did they wait until NOW to release these? pics taken in 2015 and we pay their salaries in tax dollars https://t.co/hhXxrfsWEr
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) June 1, 2016
This was not a conspiracy and there is no secret cover-up of Pluto pictures. Pluto is really, really, far away. These pictures take time to be sent back to Earth from that far away. The craft is actually still sending data and will likely be sending more data into the latter part of this year.
Some patient Twitter user told Greta that getting high-resolution from a spacecraft millions of miles away is like getting nine women pregnant in hopes of getting a baby in a month.
it's almost like getting nine women to make a baby in a month, right?
— Kevin P. Fleming (@realkpfleming) June 1, 2016
Nasa has unfortunately had budget cuts in recent years. Congress even slashed over $320 million from Nasa’s budget this year. Republicans seem to keep killing anything that could prove climate change. Regardless, the agency has continued getting data about our changing climate even after being told not to.
Their findings of climate change conflict with the oil and coal industries who pay Republicans to look the other way.
Marcia Smith at Space Policy Online had this to say about the issue:
“In theory, the government should make policy and then propose (and enact) budgets to implement the policy, but in reality it is often the reverse. The Washington adage that “budgets make policy” is often true, and this bill provides an example. While the policy section endorses the National Research Council’s Decadal Survey for earth sciences and directs NASA to implement a program that is consistent with its recommendations and priorities, and to ensure a “steady cadence of large, medium and small missions,” the funding section cuts the earth science budget to an extent that it seems impossible to achieve that policy.”
Fox News puts out science pieces trying to prove that climate change isn’t happening. Obviously, their reporters don’t know what’s going on with NASA and their missions. Maybe they should start at math camp.
