The Bridge: Connecting Science and Policy

June 10, 2016

Space Weather Research and Forecasting Act Introduced to Senate

This blog post was written by Delores Knipp, Editor in Chief of AGU’s Space Weather and Space Weather Quarterly. To learn more about space weather, read Dr. Knipp’s previous post on the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan. Space weather effects on technology-enabled societies were first reported in telegraph systems in the late 1840’s, with the Carrington storm of 1859 being a prime example. Furthermore, technologies developed within the last …

May 25, 2016

Funding Season is Open: Part 3

Thanks for staying with us as we continue to break down federal science funding for fiscal year 2017 (FY2017). To completely understand how the FY2017 landscape is evolving, I encourage you to check out the first and second parts of our funding Bridge posts. As you’ll recall, we previously laid out the good and bad of the Senate’s appropriations bill covering NASA, DOE’s Office of Science, NOAA, and the National …

December 1, 2015

National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan

This blog post was written by Delores Knipp, Editor in Chief of AGU’s Space Weather Journal. When one thinks of the kinds of weather that might grab headlines or be worthy of policy considerations, terms like polar vortices, fire weather, super-typhoons and El Nino come to mind. “Space Weather,” which refers to variations in the space environment between the sun and Earth (and throughout the solar system) that can affect …

May 27, 2015

Should NASA be Studying the Earth?

This past spring, Congress took a number of steps that seemed to imply that NASA should be reprioritizing its focus away from the Earth Sciences. For example, during a hearing on March 12, 2015, some members of the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness suggested to NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. that NASA should shift its attention from Earth Science to space exploration and research, which they suggested …

January 26, 2015

The State of the Climate, According to Obama

On Tuesday night, the president carried on the time-honored tradition of appearing before Congress and delivering the State of the Union address. So what exactly did he say? The President spent a full two minutes discussing the topic of climate change, which is pretty lengthy considering the totality of individual issues mentioned in a typical SOTU address. Notably, the president called out United States leadership in combating climate change: “In …

January 15, 2015

Top Five Science Policy Issues in 2015

Earlier this week, we took look at the top five science policy issues of 2014. Now comes the fun part – reading the tea leaves in search of what we think will be the top five science policy issues going forward. Some will be trends carried over from the year previous, and some will be entirely new.

July 2, 2014

Mining takes off for asteroids

WASHINGTON, DC – Space travel today is like taking a cross-country road trip from Seattle to New York City without stopping at a gas station. Rockets launched into space must carry all the fuel they will need to reach their destination, which limits the distance they can travel into the galaxy.

July 1, 2014

Houston…we have a problem

Climate change and the actions people can take to combat it are hard for most people to see – and that could be part of the reason why some people are more worried about an asteroid slamming into the Earth than the threat of a warming planet, according to panelists at the AGU Science Policy Conference held 16-18 June 2014.

January 17, 2014

Space Exploration: The Great Uniter

As we jump headfirst into 2014, it seems as if both Americans and their elected officials in Congress couldn’t be more divided. Going forward into the new year, is there anything left we can agree on?