From the blog of Bill Hooke at the American Meteorological Association, in a posting on Sept. 7 titled titled Stepwise:  Ever the optimist, Bill writes:

These days it’s easy (fashionable, even) to be depressed by the news reports on Earth observations, science and services on the one hand, and the actions of the world’s leaders and governments with respect to resource, environmental, and hazards issues on the other. The former narrative is often about budget cuts, unfilled staff positions, increasing bureaucracy in the proposal process, threats to research universities, and scientists engaged in an unbecoming war with each other and with political leaders over the implications of their work. The latter story line concentrates on political gridlock, the obstinate refusal of countries and their leaders to find common ground to deal with pressing problems and with long-range threats, the focus instead on emergencies such as the current Syrian crisis

.But such pessimism is misplaced.

Got to the rest of the article to find out why he says that!