WIRED: "Trump Cuts Are Killing a Tiny Office That Keeps Measurements of the World Accurate"

[yellow dahlia]

"A 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."

Cuts made by the Trump administration are threatening the function of a tiny but crucial office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that maintains the US’s framework of spatial information: latitudes, longitudes, vertical measurements like elevation, and even measurements of Earth’s gravitational field.

Staff losses at the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), the oldest scientific agency in the US, could further cripple its mission and activities, including a long-awaited project to update the accuracy of these measurements, former employees and experts say. As the world turns more and more toward operations that need precise coordinate systems like the ones NGS provides, the science that underpins this office’s activities, these experts say, is becoming even more crucial.

snip/

NGS was formed in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson, the son of a surveyor and cartographer. Originally called the Survey of the Coast, the organization, led by a young Swiss immigrant named Ferdinand Hassler, was tasked with mapping the coastlines of the new country. Over the next 200 years, its mission expanded to cover the practice of geodesy: the science of calculating the shape of the Earth, its orientation in space, and its gravitational field.

snip/

In order to update the US’s datums to be in line with satellite data, land shifts, and accurate measurements of the Earth, staff at NGS were planning on rolling out a long-awaited modernization of the National Spatial Reference System, bringing it into the 21st century and making it easier to update moving forward. Originally scheduled to be completed in 2022, the agency posted a notice in the federal register last fall detailing its updated timeline for rolling out the new datums and associated products in 2025 and 2026.

Here is a link to the full article. https://www.wired.com/story/trump-cuts-are-killing-a-tiny-office-that-keeps-our-measurements-of-the-world-accurate/

[tanyev]

1. The man who claims to be 6'3" and 220 pounds doesn't like accurate measurements.

[Jim__]

2. Trump has absolutely no understanding. We're being ruled by a moron. Hopefully we survive his idiocy.

[yellow dahlia]

3. Everything that keeps us safe and keeps things "going" is being broken.

It is painful to watch.

I wonder how much will survive, and how much can be "fixed".

[Irish_Dem]

4. Yes everything is being destroyed.

The society, norms, rules, history, culture, the federal govt, art, education, healthcare, science.
Everything that made America great.

The Make America Great MAGA slogan is so ironic.
Trump is doing the opposite, make the US a hell hole.

I wonder too YD what life will be like in 4 years.
How much of our country will remain.
How much economic pain will we all suffer.
Will some of us not make it and be gone.

[yellow dahlia]

5. I experience a visceral angst every day, while watching the destruction.

Every day a new reason to make a sign or make a phone call.

[Irish_Dem]

6. I wake up almost every night at 3am with the same sick angst in the pit of my stomach.

Yes it is up to We The People.

[yellow dahlia]

7. And wouldn't it be nice if Congress were doing their job?

We the People represent the Constitution and this country better than Congress.

[Irish_Dem]

9. And the judiciary did more than make rulings which are only ignored.

Cabinet members and employees need to start being jailed for contempt of court.

Yes regular people are more connected to rule of law, the constitution, democracy
than our leaders. The ones on the federal payroll are asleep at the switch.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. The Entire Budget Of NGS....

...is $100 million. Out of a $1.8 trillion discretionary budget.
All of NGS is 0.00556% savings from the budget. This is nothing, thereby making it unnecessary. And thud is for the entire NGS budget, not thus slice of it.
Complete waste of effort. Doing damage with no real payback.