If no one is researching climate, climate change doesn't exist.
Notifications of mass firings of NOAA employees were sent out Thursday afternoon, to mostly "probationary employees," recent new hires. 800 firings out of 13,000 employees (6%). New York Times (free link):
As is the case at other agencies, the Trump administration appears to be firing probationary employees at NOAA not because their work is necessarily less valuable than that of other staff members, but because they’re easier to dismiss.
More cuts are coming. This isn't about cutting the federal budget deficit or debt as federal employee salaries and benefits are only 3% of the federal budget. It gets even more ridiculous:
The General Services Administration, which manages government facilities, has begun canceling some of the contracts for buildings that NOAA uses, according to a person familiar with the matter. The agency has frozen credit cards used to pay for travel and sharply restricted the amount of money employees are able to put on those cards for other purchases.
The cuts are purely political:
NOAA has been singled out for especially deep cuts by members of the Trump administration. Project 2025, the policy blueprint published by the Heritage Foundation that is reflected in many of the actions taken by the Trump administration so far, calls the agency “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.” The document urges that NOAA be dismantled and some of its programs be terminated.
Every billion saved is another billion for billionaires.... I can't tell if Trump is trying to destroy America or if he thinks he's saving it (and for whom). He's not much of a thinker, but the people around him know what they're doing. Disgusting.
