Letter of petition available to sign
CSIRO is cutting over 200 positions in climate-related science positions. The reported rationale is that the science debate on climate is effectively over and the research agenda should move rapidly into the mitigation/adaptation arena (see links at end of email for more info). Such a decision would have important international as well as national ramifications. These arguments are outlined in a statement which was posted on the World Climate Research Programme website yesterday morning (and tweeted, etc): www.wcrp-climate.org/rss-news-highlights.
A letter with a more detailed rationale (http://goo.gl/forms/P2JrAA0ido) will be sent to the Australian government and to CSIRO’s board later this week. It is written by Paul Durack (LLNL) and Anna Pirani (new head of IPCC WG1 TSU) and has been signed by many scientists internationally.
If you think you might like to sign this letter, it can still be signed as a show of support. The relevance for SPARC is CSIRO’s important contribution to measurements and modeling. As more emphasis is put in on nearer term climate predictions and on understanding regional changes, large reductions in CSIRO’s capability would have a really significant impact on our overall capability in these areas.
For more information: