(AFP) – The Trump administration, pursuing its deeply skeptical approach to climate change, wants to severely cut back the research arm of a government agency that plays a pivotal role in global climate science, US media reported Friday. The administration plans to ask Congress, which sets the budgets for federal agencies, to cut funding for research labs and offices overseeing climate studies in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to an internal White House document consulted by CNN and the journal Science.
“Trump’s budget plan for NOAA is both outrageous and dangerous,” said Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, the ranking Democrat on the House science committee, warning that the administration is “wholly destroying” essential services in a statement. About 75 percent of funding for NOAA’s research branch could be eliminated from the 2026 budget — drastic cuts to the prestigious agency that could be implemented starting this year. The administration wants to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of federal and academic scientists who study human-driven global warming, Science reported.
The cuts would be on top of at least 1,000 NOAA jobs eliminated last month under the drastic downsizing overseen by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Scientists say the further cuts could have enormous consequences, given NOAA’s crucial role both nationally and globally in weather forecasting, climate studies and fisheries conservation. Researchers and labs around the world rely on data and mathematical models from NOAA, so an end to its research programs could have a drastic impact, scientists say. It could also affect the US economy, given the heavy dependence of the agricultural sector and fishing industry on NOAA weather predictions and data.
“This administration’s hostility towards research and rejection of climate science will have the consequence of eviscerating the weather forecasting capabilities that this plan claims to preserve,” Lofgren wrote. “What NOAA does is crucial to the life-saving weather research and services that it provides to the American people.”
Some conservatives see NOAA as a chief purveyor of what they call “climate alarmism.” The Trump administration has launched a concerted assault on the government’s climate-related resources, ordering massive layoffs and deleting websites with data on the weather and climate. The White House also wants to make budget cuts to a branch of NASA that is tasked with using satellites to study and monitor the effects of climate change, according to media reports.
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