CIA Images Help Scientists Understand Climate Change

The federal government has restarted a program that allows the Central Intelligence Agency to share secret satellite images and information from other classified sources with scientists working on understanding climate change phenomena, the New York Times reported. About 60 scientists from academia, industry and federal agencies run the scientific side of the program under guidance from the National Academy of Science.

Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said the program offered access to environmental data that otherwise would be impossible to obtain. For example, the information has been used to look at the effects of climate change in the Arctic. A report from the National Research Council stated: "There are no other data available that show the melting and freezing processes. Their release will have a major impact on understanding effects of climate change."

CIA spokeswoman Paula Weiss was quoted as saying that CIA Director Leon E. Panetta "believes it is crucial to examine the potential national security implications of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels and population shifts." At the urging of former VP Al Gore and with the support of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the program resurrected the Medea, or Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis, effort that was shut down early in the Bush administration after operating from 1992. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., opposed the renewal, saying the CIA should be fighting terrorism, "not spying on sea lions."