Have you seen NOAA's new mission statement?

[dixiegrrrrl]

NOAA has revamped their weather page.
The home page has slide show of what they consider important topics,including
" An Ocean Legend Passes- Remembering Sen. Ted Stevens"
with his mug staring at the viewer.
http://www.noaa.gov/index.html

Clicking on the "weather" page brings up this Mission statement:
(2nd paragraph)

"With the mission to protect life and property, and enhance the United States’ economy, NOAA's National Weather Service is the sole official voice of the U.S. government for issuing warnings during life-threatening weather situations. "
http://www.noaa.gov/wx.html

You can always tell when the M.I.C. has digested a government agency, the use of the word
"mission" starts popping up, and the language becomes more testosterone driven.

But "enhance the US economy"????? A "mission" of the WEATHER Service?
That creates an enormous conflict of interest,one which we saw with BP.
It means NOAA's weather service cannot do anything which would negatively impact the US economy.
Like admit the GOM is polluted?

edited to add:
Damn...I found this in a following paragraph on the page:
"In addition, NOAA has a responsibility to support the growth of an environmental information enterprise, a partnership between government, academia and the private sector. "
enterprise is one of the new buzzwords being used to describe profit making private business
using government resources."

Squid indeed.


Like report on bad air quality in a region?
Like not admit to global warming?

[Turbineguy]

1. People who cook up Mission Statements.

And then there are those who actually work for a living.

[Gecko6400]

2. Not surprising, given NASA has an ambassadorial

mission to Islam.

Seriously, it could have something to do with agricultural production.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. NOAA, not NASA.

NASA has its own wonderful can of worms.
I am just realizing much the "pod people" have taken over NOAA.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. NOAA is part of DoC because of management of ocean resources, like commercial fishing

And the economy is affected by the weather.

[wtmusic]

4. NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce

A bill, HR300, died in subcommittee last year which would have allowed it to stand on its own.

There was a troubling 2006 change in NASA's mission statement, which used to read:

“To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.”

"To understand and protect our home planet" was removed.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Interesting about NASA.

I found the current and proposed "strategic goals" for NOAA also.

Lots of talk about "private sector and NGO's" being involved.
But NOAA is placed squarely under Dept. of Homeland Security.
fascinating information to be found if one wanders around the various pages of NOAA site.

[wtmusic]

8. That change was made because of a single lecture given by James Hansen on global warming.

"Hansen has stated that NASA administrators have tried to influence his public statements about the causes of climate change. Hansen said that NASA public relations staff were ordered to review his public statements and interviews after a December 2005 lecture at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. NASA responded that its policies are similar to those of any other federal agency in requiring employees to coordinate all statements with the public affairs office without exception. Two years after Hansen and other agency employees described a pattern of distortion and suppression of climate science by political appointees, the agency’s inspector general found that the NASA Office of Public Affairs had mischaracterized the science of climate change intended for the public."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen

Not surprising under BFEE, but there is hope. The statement now reads,

"To improve life here, to extend life to there, to find life beyond",

and their "vision" incorporates the text missing in 2006:

"To understand and protect our home planet, To explore the Universe and search for life, and To inspire the next generation of explorers... as only NASA can."

http://naccenter.arc.nasa.gov/NASAMission.html

[mike r]

7. They got it from Dilbert's Automatic Mission Statement Generator