The Trump administration is proposing to reduce the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research’s budget (OAR) from US$485m to US$171m. This would end most climate research conducted by the NOAA and cost hundreds of climate experts and NOAA employees their jobs.
Proposal consequences
The budget plan would also weaken hurricane forecasting by eliminating a system that tracks ocean conditions that affect the weather and storms. Ocean advocacy organization Oceana warns that among the ocean-related consequences of cutting NOAA resources are US waters becoming overfished, depleted and empty; increased imports of illegally sourced or mislabeled seafood into the US, unfairly disadvantaging US fishers; endangered or threatened marine wildlife like North Atlantic right whales and loggerhead sea turtles going extinct; and more lives and property lost in disasters due to a lack of information about severe weather events to convey timely and life-saving information.
Industry response
Hawley Traux, vice president of political affairs at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), stated, “Millions of Americans rely on NOAA’s science every day for weather alerts, forecasting and much more. Cutting climate research makes people everywhere more vulnerable to extreme weather and compromises our safety and ability to thrive. We need climate scientists and experts now more than ever to ensure our families, businesses and nation are ready to face the challenges ahead.”
Dr Ticora Jones, chief science officer at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), commented, “Cutting federal climate research won’t eliminate the threats from intense heat waves, unprecedented hurricanes, or devastating flooding – it will just make our nation far less able to prepare for them. This is like turning off your headlights while driving at night on a winding road. Not knowing the dangers ahead doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Trump’s fossil fuel donors want to hide the realities of climate change so they can keep polluting – and keep padding their profits. The rest of us need to know the facts. Eliminating this crucial research leaves us all in the dark about the perils ahead.”
“This is ludicrous! Whether you live on a coast or in the heartland, these proposed cuts to NOAA will impact you,” added Beth Lowell, Oceana’s vice president for the US. “Eliminating funding and staffing won’t just cause chaos and confusion within NOAA – it would undermine people and businesses across the country. It opens the door to overfishing and would leave fishers with uncertainty about how they will support their families. It would put Americans in harm’s way as critical weather updates may be offline. Protected animals like whales and sea turtles could go extinct with scientists no longer on duty. Congress must act to stop the dismantling of NOAA that would directly threaten the millions of Americans that depend on healthy oceans for their jobs, businesses and seafood dinners.”
In related news, NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite, the final satellite in its GOES-R Series, recently officially began operations as GOES East. Click here to read the full story.