Daniel Swain, a UCLA and UC ANR climate scientist, spoke up today against the mass firings at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service. In a public statement and in a live briefing on YouTube, he noted that “there will be people who die in extreme weather events & related disasters who would not have otherwise.”
The full statement is online and in a thread here.
“The mass firing of both new hires and recently promoted senior staff within #NOAA, including mission-critical and life-saving roles at the National Weather Service (#NWS), is profoundly alarming. … In fact, though this is not widely known, most or all private weather companies in U.S. (including forecasts that you see on TV or your favorite app) are built directly atop backbone of taxpayer-funded instrumentation, data, predictive modeling, & forecasts provided by NOAA. ...
"To be clear: If there were to be large staffing reductions at NOAA and NWS — at appears is now indeed underway, with credible reports of larger further cuts on horizon — there will be people who die in extreme weather events and related disasters who would not have otherwise. The now-confirmed and rumored additional cuts to come at NOAA/NWS are spectacularly short-sighted and ultimately will deal a major self-inflicted wound to the public safety of Americans and the resiliency of the American economy to weather and climate-related disasters.”
