Post

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

18. Widespread anticipated RIFs at US DOI, including elimination of the Climate Adaptation Science Centers

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Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

20. Furlough of @unidata.bsky.social (May 9, 2025)

Dr. Jeff Masters@drjeffmasters.bsky.social

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.

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

21. NSF abolishing its divisions and rotators, and focusing the agency narrowly around AI, quantum, biotech, nuclear energy, and translational science

Science Magazine@science.org

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/3EKnxmc

scim.agNSF slashes number of ‘rotators’ and well-paid managers as part of restructuringSmaller future budgets will require fewer people, NSF official tells staff
Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

23. National Weather Service scrambling to re-fill positions vacated by DOGE (May 14, 2025)

Zack Colman@zcolman.bsky.social

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. www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

politico.comDemocrats raise alarms as National Weather Service races to fill jobs ahead of hurricane seasonInternal documents reviewed by POLITICO revealed a range of open positions, from a lead meteorologist role in Fairbanks, Alaska, to meteorologist-in-charge at the NWS office in Lake Charles, Louisiana...
Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

24. Crippling of National Geodetic Survey (reporting May 21, 2025)

molly taft@mollytaft.com

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:

wired.comTrump Cuts Are Killing a Tiny Office That Keeps Measurements of the World AccurateA tiny but crucial agency that maintains physical coordinates like latitude and longitude in the US is struggling as the Trump administration forces out federal employees.
Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

25. Gold Standard Science EO (May 23, 2025) - implications unclear for climate knowledge, could be neutral or negative but probably not positive

Bob Kopp@bobkopp.net

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/profile/bobk...

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

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

Daniel Drezner@dandrezner.bsky.social

I wish this was hyperbole but the facts speak for themselves. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-trump-...

danieldrezner.substack.comThe Trump Administration Is Trying to Kill American Higher EducationI don't care about the "why" -- I care about the "what."
Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

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)

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social

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/files/00-NSF...

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

26b. also reduces support for the National Center for Atmospheric Research by 40%, ocean observations by 80%

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Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

26d. Also eliminate NOAA office of oceanic and atmospheric research

Tom Di Liberto@tdiliberto.bsky.social

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. www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

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.

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

26f. NASA cuts would slash missions, severely impacting JPL and Goddard Space Flight Center

Paul Voosen@voosen.me

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.

science.orgDozens of active and planned NASA spacecraft killed in Trump budget requestProposal would end nearly all new major science missions
Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

26g. DOE budget slashes Biological & Environmental Research by almost 60%, focused particularly on “environmental system sciences, atmospheric system research, earth system modeling, data management, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement”

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

29. National Science Foundation targeted for eviction (reported June 24, 2025 with announcement expected June 25, 2025)

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social

NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years. NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

31. NSIDC discontinuing sea ice data based on the DOD Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder because of DOD discontinuation of processing (June 30, 2025)

Zack Labe@zacklabe.com

Awful. More horrible science news "The NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) learned yesterday that the Department of Defense (DoD) will stop processing & delivering the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) data no later than 30 June 2025."

Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

31 (cont). This discontinuation also impacts other areas, like hurricane monitoring

Michael Lowry@michaelrlowry.bsky.social

A huge blow was dealt to hurricane forecasters this week as a critical tool was abruptly terminated by the Department of Defense and NOAA. The immediate discontinuation of data from three weather satellites will severely impact hurricane forecasts this season and beyond. More ⬇️

michaelrlowry.substack.comCritical Hurricane Forecast Tool Abruptly TerminatedU.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday it would no longer process and deliver data essential to most hurricane forecasts
Bob Kopp
@bobkopp.net

The August 2000 snapshot makes me think the site might have been launched in 1999 — it has pages for “Agency Datasets Released in 2000” and “Agency Datasets Released in 1999”. Anyways, murdered after at least a quarter century.