There’s so much happening right now, I thought I’d put together a running thread on the dismantling of #climate and research and knowledge infrastructure in the United States 🧵 1. Cancelling of US support for the @ipcc.bsky.social Working Group 3 (mitigation) Technical Support Unit (Feb. 10, 2025)
www.science.org
2. Cancellation of $4M of NOAA cooperative agreement funding for Princeton, for “Cancellation of select NOAA cooperative agreement funding for Princeton, for promoting “exaggerated and implausible climate threats” and “climate anxiety” (April 8, 2025)
www.commerce.gov
3. Cancelling of the contract for the support staff for the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and National Climate Assessment (April 9, 2025)
www.politico.com
4. Dismantling of State Department Office of Global Change, which among many other roles leads US government participation in the IPCC (April 24, 2025)
www.politico.com
5. Eviction of NASA GISS (April 24, 2025)
nasawatch.com
6. Dismissal of federal staff of the USGCRP and the authors of the National Climate Assessment (April 28, 2025)
www.npr.org
7. President’s Budget Request proposes mass destruction to science funding in general and climate in particular (May 2, 2025)
www.whitehouse.gov
8. Dismantling of EPA Office of Research and Development (May 2, 2025)
www.reuters.com
9. Dismantling of Energy Star - not climate sensu strictu, but I worked on appliance standards and labeling when I was at the Department of Energy so including it here - along with EPA climate change division (May 5, 2025)
www.nytimes.com
10. Discontinuing of NOAA NCEI snow and ice data products (May 6, 2025)
nsidc.org
11. Illegal shutdown of USAID eenews.net
www.eenews.net
12. Closing of half of USGS Water Science Centers (May 2, 2025)
Trump has ordered closure of ~½ of USGS Water Sci Centers that monitor US waters for flooding & drought, measure levels & quality in ground & surface water with 1000s of gages, & do sci studies (in coop w/local-to-federal agencies) allowing successful water mgmt. theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com
13. Layoffs leave many National Weather Service offices understaffed (several rounds of DOGE-inspired layoffs, reporting as of May 2, 2025)
NEW: US weather forecasting is in worse shape than previously known, with 30 NWS forecast offices missing meteorologists-in-charge and about a dozen offices at risk of no longer serving their communities 24/7. cnn.com
www.cnn.com
14. DOD cancelled its Minerva Research Initiative, which funds national security-relevant social science, including work on climate, conflict, and migration. (March 2, 2025) h/t @chadmbriggs.bsky.social
www.science.org
15. Decimation of the Energy Information Administration (cumulative layoffs, reporting as of May 5, 2025)
Worrisome for all of us who rely on EIA data: "More than 100 of the EIA’s 350 staff have left as a result of firings or resignations, in the wake of 'Fork in the Road' buyout offers from Elon Musk’s DOGE." propublica.org by @peterelkind.bsky.social 🔌💡
www.propublica.org
16. Discontinuation of NOAA’s Billion Dollar Disaster data set (May 8, 2025)
I removed the paywall: nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com
17. Proposed Schedule F (Schedule Policy/Career) rules would subject scientific agencies to greater political control. (Federal Register notice April 23, 2025)
New, from @pamherd.bsky.social & I in @science.org: "Career officials in scientific agencies are unwilling hostages in Trump’s politicization of science, wondering if they will lose their jobs for trying to defend their congressionally mandated missions." science.org
www.science.org
18. Widespread anticipated RIFs at US DOI, including elimination of the Climate Adaptation Science Centers
It's in his budget but now DOGE has concrete plans to eliminate the whole thing (including Climate Adaptation Science Centers) next Thursday via reduction-in-force.
www.govexec.com
19. OIRA guidance setting the social cost of carbon at zero for reasons of uncertainty (May 5, 2025)
www.whitehouse.gov
20. Furlough of @unidata.bsky.social (May 9, 2025)
NSF-supported Unidata announced that almost their entire staff will be furloughed as of today. This is a huge threat to weather education and research at universities--Unidata provides crucial realtime data feeds of weather data, including satellite, radar, and observations.
21. NSF abolishing its divisions and rotators, and focusing the agency narrowly around AI, quantum, biotech, nuclear energy, and translational science
NSF officials announced they are essentially abandoning the use of “rotators”— scientists on leave from academic positions who help the agency choose the best research to fund. NSF also plans to reduce the number of administrators classified as senior executive service employees. scim.ag
scim.ag
22. Again, not climate sensu strict but counting bc I worked on them at DOE — proposed repeal of appliance efficiency standards (May 12, 2025)
appliance-standards.org
23. National Weather Service scrambling to re-fill positions vacated by DOGE (May 14, 2025)
NOAA is scrambling to fill 155 vacancies at the National Weather Service, I reported earlier in Morning Energy. Dems are drawing attention to the openings, calling NOAA's pleas an admission that Trump's cuts leave the nation unprepared for storms. politico.com
www.politico.com
24. Crippling of National Geodetic Survey (reporting May 21, 2025)
SCOOP from me: the mass exodus of employees from NOAA is decimating a tiny office that literally keeps our measurements of latitude and longitude accurate — and, former employees tell me, endangers the science of how the US understands global measurements:
www.wired.com
25. Gold Standard Science EO (May 23, 2025) - implications unclear for climate knowledge, could be neutral or negative but probably not positive
As Gretchen says, this is probably one of the less objectionable EOs to come out of this administration. But it is also setting up for the weaknesses Kratsios revealed in his speech this past week bsky.app
Update to #5 - GISS evicted (May 29, 2025)
www.scientificamerican.com
By the way, I am not tracking the broader assault on higher education and scientific research in this thread, but so far this has been the bigger story than assaults on climate knowledge infrastructure specifically
I wish this was hyperbole but the facts speak for themselves. danieldrezner.substack.com
danieldrezner.substack.com
26. Presidential budget would cut NSF GEO support by over 40% (closer to 60% excluding polar programs), as part of an effort to reduce overall number of NSF-supported scientists by 2/3 (May 30, 2025)
Presidential budget is out. Here's NSF. Biggest cut, by amount, is $1 billion, or 66.8%, from MPS (Physics & Math directorate). nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov
26b. also reduces support for the National Center for Atmospheric Research by 40%, ocean observations by 80%
“At the FY 2026 Budget level, NCAR will curtail but continue to support research to refine weather and earth system models and to better understand the evolution of wildland fires.“ The NSF budget request has 40% cuts to NCAR
26c. also cuts NASA earth science by over 50%
www.nasa.gov
26d. Also eliminate NOAA office of oceanic and atmospheric research
Trump's Budget is out. For NOAA, it's exactly what the previous passback document showed. Trump administration eliminations NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research in its ongoing fight against science and reality. govinfo.gov
26e. Back to NSF, we are all becoming either AI geoscientists, critical mineral geoscientists, or natural hazard geoscientists now. A bunch of climate work can be done under this umbrella, but a lot less funds overall.
26f. NASA cuts would slash missions, severely impacting JPL and Goddard Space Flight Center
Breaking from @science.org: The Trump administration wants to kill off a host of active and healthy NASA climate and planetary spacecraft. It would be a "leaner, more focused" agency, they say -- and one far less capable of studying the Earth and exploring space.
www.science.org
26g. NSF funds that support the US Global Change Research Program - down 96%