Holdren at Science Budget Briefing: “Leaner and Meaner” Despite $2.6 Billion for “Global Change Research”

Jurriaan Maessen
Infowars.com
February 14, 2012

At the annual science budget briefing yesterday, white house science czar John P. Holdren took a swipe at the United States Congress for cutting the appropriated budget for the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) from 2011 to 2012. Holdren, who heads the Office, also expressed hope that Congress “will see fit to boost us back up to the level requested by the President for 2013.”

“We have obviously struggled to deal with the heavy budget cut that we got. It has made us leaner, but- as they say- perhaps also leaner and meaner.”

“The president’s request for OSTP (Office of Science & Technology Policy) for 2013 is 5.85 million.”, Holdren stated. “The appropriation for 2012 was 4.5 million down from 6.65 million in 2011. That was a big hit. And that was not the doing of the administration, that was the doing of the Congress.”

Before this obvious snub at Congress concerning past constraints on the budget for the OSTP, Holdren happily announced that the President is planning to increase the budget for the United States Global Change Research Program (which features polar bears on its website) at a rate of almost 6 %. A program dedicated to “global change”.

“Global change research does well in the 2013 budget”, Holdren stated. “One can look at that as a reaffirmation of our commitment to addressing the climate change challenge. There’s 2.6 billion in the budget for the USGCRP (United States Global Change Research Program). An increase (…) of almost 6 % over the 2012 enacted level. And that of course is aimed at understanding, assessing, predicting and responding to global change, including providing to decision makers, individuals, firms, businesses, farmers- the information they need to understand what the climate is doing and how they may adapt to changes that we are not able to avoid through mitigation.”

Holdren concluded the item by saying: “Science for sustainability is a priority across a number of our agencies…”

“Sustainability”, “global change”: all issues that John Holdren has dedicated his entire career to. Holdren of course did not mention at the briefing that “global change” is just the latest term for “global warming”. The theory of global warming has for quite some time been challenged by reputable scientists worldwide. Just recently the theory has come under even greater scrutiny as the melting of the icecaps at the north pole was not nearly at the rate predicted by all too ambitious researchers throughout the scientific community.

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