Layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday drew a swift rebuke from scientists and politicians, who say the move could devastate the country’s ability to respond to extreme weather events and stop the flow of life-saving data.
Around 800 employees at the 12,000-person agency were impacted by the unceremonious firings, which came even after the Trump administration has scrambled to reverse some of its previous terminations at the National Park Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Agriculture.
Like at the Park Service, NOAA employees who were let go were in critical positions. However, that hasn’t stopped Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from stumbling forward — this time aiming their spears at government workers with all levels of experience, in ocean science, climate science, forecasting, fisheries, and other areas.
One of those employees was Tom DiLiberto, a climate scientist who has worked at NOAA since 2010 and ran the agency’s blog about monitoring and forecasting El Niño and La Niña climate patterns and their regional and global impacts. NOAA forecasts the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, one of the most important climate phenomena on Earth, for the entire world.
“Everything that’s happened is just making the U.S. less safe and really making the world less safe,” he told The Independent on Friday. “...This affects everybody, no matter where you live.”
“The idea that there’s going to be this big blind spot across the United States moving forward, for the global community, is just terrifying when it comes to weather and climate and the oceans because the oceans and the weather don’t care about borders,” DiLiberto said.
He noted that the decision from the Trump administration flies in the face of NOAA’s mission to help people — no matter who they voted for last election. Natural disasters certainly don’t care.
“They just don’t understand the concept of federal workers and what we do,” he added.
“It’s just utter cluelessness. It’s malevolence,” said DiLiberto.
Dr. Kayla Besong-Cowan, a physical scientist who works on seismic monitoring and tsunami prediction at NOAA’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, was also let go. Her husband Dr. Levi Cowan, who earned his doctorate in meteorology from Florida State University, had previously written on social media that workforce cuts would “irreparably harm” NOAA and its agencies.
“Remember, most of the NWS is understaffed as it is,” he said after the layoffs hit on Thursday. “While there surely is waste to be found, this is not where to look. Indeed, this is not ‘looking.’ This is a blind swing of a sword.”
That was a sentiment shared by many scientists, including both those impacted by that swing and others outside of NOAA.
“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,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote.
“I can’t reiterate how reckless it is of this (or any!!) administration to fire NOAA/NWS personnel. The general public has no idea the importance these folks play in our lives. Visit a local office - they’re already understaffed & working double shifts! Let me be blunt: STUPID,” said meteorologist Matt Rudkin.
“I don’t have words for what’s happening to my friends and colleagues at NOAA right now… absolutely reckless destruction of one of the world’s premier science-driven, public-serving organizations,” wrote estuarine wetland scientist Christina Toms.
“Trump’s mass firings at NOAA are an act of sabotage aimed at one of our most important federal agencies,” Miyoko Sakashita, the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans director, said in a statement.
The American Geophysical Union, a global community that supports more than half a million advocates and professionals in the Earth and space sciences, wrote a letter urging Congress to protect the agency.
“Our economy, environment, and safety depend on it,” the union said.
A multitude of politicians have chimed in to amplify that message.
“The weather service? The ones that predict blizzards, tornados, hurricanes … Maybe when you’ve got a bunker and security that doesn’t matter to you, but for the rest of us…,” mused Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
“Gutting NOAA without any plan weakens Colorado’s ability to respond to wildfires or track the West’s worsening drought,” Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper said. “Science and weather services for Americans is not government waste. Firing the hardworking Coloradans who do this work with no strategy or communication is wrong.”
“Two billionaires who have no clue what NOAA does and why it matters are laying off weather forecasters. Our whole economy hinges on the weather,” asserted. Washington Sen. Patty Murphy. “Meteorologists support wildland firefighters. They help planes & ships navigate. This is going to cost lives and property.”
The impact of the layoffs is already been felt. The agency’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab is taking an “indefinite hiatus” from communications due to the cuts. They provide critical updates about the extent of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie that can leave communities without drinking water.
The mass firings also come just days ahead of a potential severe weather outbreak in the southern and central U.S. and less than 100 days away from the Atlantic hurricane season. NOAA helps to provide critical outlooks and real-time information that can save lives in extreme weather events.
There are also reports of more layoffs on Friday.
Former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad, who was working through last year, says it will likely take years to really know the full scope of the effects of staff cuts. NOAA leaders have been "able to pick and choose the best and the brightest."
However, "if you lose the intellectual capital, it's going to take decades to get that back," Spinrad told NPR.
