Science article
https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-seeks-end-climate-research-premier-u-s-climate-agency
NYT article
The proposal from the Office of Management and Budget would abolish the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research office at NOAA, one of the world’s premiere Earth sciences research centers.
A budget allocation of just over $170 million, down from about $485 million in 2024, would hobble science as varied as early warning systems for natural disasters, science education for students in kindergarten through high school, and the study of the Arctic, where temperatures have increased nearly four times as fast as the rest of the planet over the past four decades. “At this funding level, O.A.R. is eliminated as a line office,” the proposal states.
Now it’s just the National Administration.
Jokes aside: I’m real worried about this. Not just in the “clinate change is coming” way either.
I rely on NOAA Emergency Alerts and Severe Weather prediction for safety. We get nasty weather, starting in this time of year, and I don’t know if I can trust my weather radio anymore to alert my family if there is a situation we need to be aware of.
I know the feeling, the Ohio river is right across the street from me right now and it really shouldn’t be.
Rivers that don’t stay put make me nervous. Luckily we’re something like 30 feet above the banks.
They want to privatize all these critical services or just strip them for parts if they can’t deliver a profit. Scumbags
I did end up getting into ham radio, and one of my motivations was to keep in contact during a weather emergency as we get wild weather this time of year too. Thankfully there’s a repeater nearby that talks about the weather and has spotters getting together when severe weather does come. I mostly rely on them these days. I think they are led by NWS staff, but amateurs from all over the area talk on there.
I really should be doing this. I’ve talked about it for years. I guess I didn’t need a license to listen at least.
The technician (lowest license level) license is fairly easy if you take some online practice quizzes, or study the old-fashioned way if you want. But you’re right, you don’t need a license just to listen. A Baofeng handheld radio and maybe an upgraded antenna should be all you need to listen to local repeaters. You can look up your area online and find the frequencies and settings to access them. Transmitting without a license can get you into trouble, but exceptions are made for emergencies.
Got my GT-5R today. I found a club that hosts tests monthly, next one is next week, I’m not sure I’ll do that one, but May is on the docket. Thanks for the motivation.
The goal is to replicate New Orleans after Katrina to force mass privatization in the wake of increasingly frequent disasters. It’s why they’re committed to eliminating NOAA and FEMA.
It’s why the only guidance coming out of DHS to state emergency management agencies asking if their funding will still be there tomorrow is “better get used to relying on the private sector”.
For sure. New Orleans is a privatized nightmare in terms of engineering and construction - cranking out dogshit studies with no correction since the CPRA is just as useless, and everything in the pockets of the local levee districts, glorified chambers of commerce but with the authority to define which communities get levees.
At the end of the day, it’s not about protecting any communities (otherwise you wouldn’t build them below sea level….) but rather about protecting oil infrastructure. Hence you see lots of studies that aren’t fiscally justified go forward with poorly defined benefit-cost analyses, and then hardly hold up to scrutiny, except that the local levee districts then rile up their local slop farmer (e g. Sen. Graves ®-LA) who leans on the federal government to approve it.
I don’t think there have ever been any consequences to this sort of action? But if there are, we’ll all certainly learn from them…
Private engineering firms are just there to eat the blame when making “tough decisions”, since they have neither ties to the community nor an obligation to its members. Federal engineering studies are obligated to consider a range of decisions and utilize standards, private studies just need to say what you want them to and then provide enough backing to justify it in permitting. Therefore our system of austerity and kickbacks greatly favors one over the other.
“Now we can prop up the hollowed out husk to exploit the integrity and legitimacy they’ve built up to more effectively trick people into plowing headlong off the cliff that is the status quo. Y’know, ‘run it like a business’!”In short, Trump would prefer to disband NOAA.
“NOOO STOP RESEARCHING THE CLIMATE, YOU SHOULD ONLY REPORT THE WEATHER!!!”
“That’s what I’m doing, though! I’m reporting the weather, and the weather just keeps getting shittier everywhere!”
“NOOO NOT LIKE THAT, METEOROLOGY IS WOKE NOW!!!”
ChatGPT will solve the earth system so it’s just wasted money at this point.
“ChatGPT - help me! The flooding is horrible! What should I do?!”
“Seek higher ground.”
“And?..”
“You could bring glue.”
“Glue?”
“Make a pizza. It’ll warm you up and sticky-sticky-sticky nom-nom-nom-nom-nom!”
that’s not good if NASA is removed from the equation and suddenly only Elon Musk becomes the messenger between Earth and Nibiru.
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Having the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration means that you own the oceans and the atmosphere. Just need to stop wasting money on all that pesky research.
Waiter I’ll have a cheeseburger please, hold the patty.
NOAA without “Ocean and Atmosphere” research is “cheeseburger, but just the plain patties, no burger, no cheese, no pickles please”
Probably trying to relocate money to the military.
Either that or turn it into another appendage of the military industrial complex by making them instead research ways to set the atmosphere on fire
NOAA is famously not an appendage of the military industrial complex. That’s why they have thousands of Navy and Air Force soldiers in their research centers.
That could also be due to the ocean and atmosphere being a concern for NOAA, and the navy and air force also having people who study ocean and atmosphere, and the us federal government programs which make it easier for former military to enter civil service.
But yes though, anything the US has done in terms of understanding natural processes is invariably linked to using that knowledge to spread violence globally. US develops research to understand littoral drift and beachhead dynamics? Better believe that’s to support beach invasions. US develops underwater drones capable of surveying bathymetry quickly and cheaply? Better believe that’s not going to be used for good.
But yeah NOAA has a commissioned officer section - which admittedly has really cool boats and planes (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA_Commissioned_Officer_Corps), as does the US Public Health Service (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Public_Health_Service_Commissioned_Corps).
Frankly if you can grift money from the military to support climate research and public health you have my full support, but remember the piper gets paid in the end…
Zack Labe on Mastodon has been fired, he was one of my “follows” there.
