Week 3 (March 19-March 25) theme for Art As The Message

Science! (and Research) Not Madness.

“Scientists [are Bracing] for a Lost Generation in American Research” (https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/trump-budget-cuts-science/519825/) 

This week the President released his “skinny” budget which will significantly reduce funding for science and research.

These cuts include:

• 6 billion cut (20%) from the National Institutes of Health Budget
• cutting the ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) program which funds developing energy technology that is too high-risk to receive corporate funding.
• a 31% budget cut to EPA. This will kill the Clean Power Plan, international climate change programs and climate change research programs, the energy star program (you know, the thing that tells you how much electricity your new washing machine or lightbulb uses), among many other programs
• cutting the DOE loan program whose mission it is to help finance a clean energy economy (one of it’s better know successes: Tesla).
• cutting many NOAA programs including “Sea Grant” which funds 33 College/University programs nationally which research costal resources and ecosystems
• cutting many NASA’s earth science missions including canceling PACE, OCO-3, and turning off the Earth-viewing instruments on the DSCOVR satellite, and the elimination of the NASA office of education.
  (while NASA is still slated to receive the same amount as last year, some programs have been specifically canceled – http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2017/20170306-trumps-first-nasa-budget.html)

NOTE: in this budget there was no mention of funding (or defunding to be fair) of the National Science Foundation – a major source of funding for College and University research.

This week, lets make some art about science and research and the importance of keeping those funded.