Mildly humorous story today as an environmental group staged a protest at NOAA headquarters claiming some scientific debate on global climate change is being surpressed by NOAA management at the behest of the Bush administration. This has been percolating for a while and is well summarized here.
I won't get into the politics of that. The interesting thing to me is the nature of NOAA management these days. It can be argued that four of the top six NOAA managers are ex-military. The administrator is a Vice Admiral. He's flanked by a Brigadier General, a Captain, and another Brigadier General (whom I've met & who is a nice guy). None of the four are meteorologists by degree. (Even the general counsel is noted as a Civil War buff.)
While I respect the military & ex-military (one in particular) & realize there's a long history between meteorology & the armed forces, this seems a little excessive to me. Plus, I don't understand why they still must be referred to by their military titles. (Dad, if you can explain this to me, I'd appreciate it.) It seems to me CEOs, deans, even U.S. Presidents shed their titles when they move on from the organization where they earned those titles.
What puzzles me most though is w/ this many ex-military officers, how were our HQ invaded by a group of treehugging wackos armed with nothing more powerful than strongly worded pamphlets on eco-friendly paper? Then, after having unfurled their flag in our territory, were allowed to retain the high ground for over 4 hours before being removed by ... a cherry picker. For heaven's sake, a cherry picker. Unacceptable. Acceptable means of removal would have involved water cannons, rubber bullets, and/or smoke grenades. It's time for a change in Silver Spring. Paging Stormin' Norman.
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