Weather & climate office hour 04/14/2025: Dismantling of NOAA, NASA, & climate research accelerates
Weather West 
The latest in a recurring series of live, virtual, & interactive “office hours” hosted by Dr. Daniel Swain on various topics related to extreme weather and climate. 04/14/2025 topic: Breaking news in recent days surrounding even deeper and more startling cuts to NOAA, NASA, FEMA, and other federal entities responsible for predicting, responding to, or studying weather, climate, wildfires, and disasters in the United States have been raising growing alarm. I’ll discuss the latest in today’s session, with a focus on potential short and long-term consequences of this proposed and/or unfolding large-scale dismantling of American science.
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Thank you Dr. Swain for talking publicly about this important topic!
Thank you for talking about this.
I’m glad no one in the Kentucky weather bureau office was sucked up by a tornado while using the porta potty🌪️
When times get tough… are humans simply collectively doomed? Politics lurches right. Nationalism rages. Outsiders are shunned. Is it just noi in our DNA to do what needs to be done??
Exhibit 1: We are doing the exact OPPOSITE of what needs to be done. Given this, what is the argument that we can actually do the harder choices necessary?
A stupid lady argued that NWS staffing was way too high. She is too dumb to realize there are 168 hrs in a week. 4 full shifts plus some. Oh well.
My husband is a NASA planetary geologist at Ames. We're waiting for the other shoe to drop in NASA. We originally thought the department that would get really whacked was the climate division–however–we are now hearing (of course, we can't get any ACTUAL information from the NASA brass about this) is that pretty much ALL the research divisions are getting whacked. We are going to be able to just retire if he gets RIF'd, but there is going to be a HUGE gap in the future of qualified scientists as those who are middle aged or lower are being RIF'd–and will disappear. Yet–they still want to send people to the moon and Mars–and we have to wonder how SAFE those voyages will be now and how much will be understood about how to best get there and back–and what they will find when they are there.