Scientists warn that the brutal dismissal by the Trump administration of hundreds of meteorological forecasts and climatic experts through the NOAA will reduce research on the significant climate and could lead to avoidable deaths during extreme weather events and related disasters.
More than 800 employees in most divisions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – a leading American federal agency at the forefront of climate research which provides free weather forecasts to the public free of charge – have been rejected in mass layoffs that have mass layoffs that started on Thursday Afternoon (February 27). The cuts targeted probation employees, a term which refers to the new hires in the trial periods of a duration of one to two years as well as to the long -term federal workers who recently passed posts; With limited civil protections, these employees are easier to terminate. Releases are part of a broader effort of the new administration of the White House to reduce the federal workforce, which is led by the Ministry of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) with Spacex CEO Elon Musk heads.
“Decimate the country’s main scientific enterprise, even if expensive and deadly impacts of climate change and extreme weather events is growing, flies in the face of logic, common sense and tax responsibility,” said Juan Declet-Barreto of the Union of Scientists concerned (UCS), said in a scientist and students of the Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT) And students from the Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT), said in a scientist and students from the Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT), said Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT), said in A by AF statement. “The data and the science of the NOAA are used regularly by meteorological forecasters, sailors, farmers, emergency stakeholders, businesses and everyday people across the country.”
“In the United States, everyone is based on the Noaa in their daily life, whether they do it or not, something that will focus on many in the weeks and months to come,” he added.
Among the dismissed NOAA people, let us quote meteorologists from the National Weather Service (NWS) who provide local forecasts, a decision that several scientists Warnings will lead to the prediction and communication of timely warnings of serious storms and earthquakes – of the advantages on which people and industries across the country count. This could ultimately leave the United States less prepared than it would have been for the increasingly extreme weather conditions climate change.
“There will be people who die in extreme meteorological events and related disasters that would not have otherwise,” Daniel Swain’s University wrote in a California air conditioning. Publish. The dismissals of the NOAA “are spectacular in short views and will ultimately make a major self-inflicted injury to the public security of the Americans and to the resilience of the American economy with bad weather and disasters linked to the climate”.
The Noaa headquarters have not immediately responded to a comment request by Space.com.
Until the end of Thursday, the NWS and NWAA offices had started to reduce services citing staff shortages. The NWS headquarters announced that the launches of meteorological balloons in Kotzebue, Alaska – which generally raise twice a day to collect the raw data used to refine the weather prediction models – have been suspended indefinitely. A Michigan campaign station which has conducted research in the Great Lakes region has announced that its presence on social networks would take a indefinite break.
“You see the heel of scientists, and the people who were dismissed today are among the best people you can imagine,” said Tom Diliberto, a climate and a weather for the Noaa until Thursday, when he was dismissed two weeks before the end of his probation period, says, says, says, says, says CBS News.
“These people have devoted their lives to helping others-there is no policy in there,” he added. “When we plan or think of the oceans and their own, we do not think of politics. It is an insult about science and all that is good.”
Like many actions ordered by the Trump administration in recent weeks, the dismissals of the NOAA have followed the vision of 2025 project. The 2025 project is a political plan created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization, which calls the NOAA “one of the main engines in the climate change alarm” and urges the agency to be dismantled, some of its programs ended and the data collected by the NWS to be marketed.
The Union of Scientists concerned said that he had delivered a letter Signed by 2,500 scientific experts calling Howard Lutnick, who heads the Commerce Department, which oversees the NOAA, to protect the staff, financing and scientific independence of the NOAA.
“Science censorship does not change the facts on climate change,” said Declet-Barreto in the UCS press release.
Across the country, several scientists plan to protest outside Noaa installations Beginning next week and during gatherings on Friday March 7, which are organized by a team of researchers at the start of “career” in “Defend science. “”
“We will not go quietly because we care about the NOAA mission to protect the public”, a scientist from the NOAA who was part of the mass dismissals at the Noaa written on social networks.