NOAA fires about 800 employees, with more possible Friday

[groundloop]

Source: CNN


The Trump administration has its government-shrinking sights set on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where around 800 employees have been tapped for termination, according to two sources close to the agency.

More layoffs are possible Friday, one of the sources said, potentially costing the weather, climate and environmental agency more than a thousand employees by the end of the week.

[snip]

The people who were charged with conducting the terminations seemed to have acted in a way that would minimize paper trails, a source close to NOAA said, making it difficult for others at the agency to know who was affected and leaving the word of firings to spread by word of mouth.

The terminated NOAA workers’ letters said, “The Agency finds you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/27/politics/noaa-federal-workers-firings/index.html

[dchill]

1. WABOFS! Goddamn it.

[Jarqui]

2. "your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency's current needs"

Not sure of their legal recourse but a good employment lawyer would have a field day with those broad, unspecific "and/or" words

Is anyone tracking red state vs blue state firings?

[groundloop]

7. They're pure evil bastard without a shred of human decency.

Putting thousands upon thousands of loyal civil servants out of work and upending their lives so our billionaires can get even richer.

[RussBLib]

3. another "mistake"?

Do they really want to make it harder to predict hurricanes and severe weather? Are they going to huddle down into their safe enclaves while the surprise weather fucks up one community after another?

Why don't we just abolish satellites and radar? This seems mindlessly stupid, even if you think that the Democrats control the weather and slam into red states, which is macro stupid.

I guess we have to mount another campaign to point out this is another stupid mistake.

https://russblib.blogspot.com

[groundloop]

6. I'm betting they plan to do away with NOAA and NWS and privatize their functions

Probably another huge contract in the making for Elmo.

[Journeyman]

4. Damn. There's gonna be a run on Sharpies, as we all try to create our own weather maps . . .

[progressoid]

5. Privatization, here we come!

[travelingthrulife]

12. Always more expensive, always less efficient

[Submariner]

8. They should be careful that one of them isn't an ex-sniper with PTSD

with a scorching need to get even and teach the White House a lesson in FAFO.

[markie]

11. a girl

can dream

[Historic NY]

9. More of Trump sharpie weather reports...

Hurricane season will be upon us. Hope its take out the shore line oF Palm Beach..

[GPV]

10. The stupidity, it burns. This is like a family going on a wilderness camping trip, and they let the four year old do all

the packing. I'm sure they'll have everything they need. 🙄

[orangecrush]

13. A few of my ham radio friends

Are active in the SKYWARN net, a network that activates in the event of a weather emergency.

The SKYWARN net is in direct contact with the NWS, amateur radio operators in the field are trained as weather observers, and relay eyes on sightings of funnel clouds and hurricane wind speeds to the NWS.

Every week night there is a casual rag chew net on 2 meters in my area. We get locals, but also from all over the East Coast via Echolink, which uses the internet to connect to a repeater.

About half the guys are Trump voters. Not what I would call batshit MAGATs, but are mostly older and think Trump is looking out for their interests.

I made sure to inform them about Musk dismantling NOAA and the NWS.

Reactions ranged from rationalization to apprehensive silence.

I had to refrain from saying this in a political sense, just said that massive layoffs in NOAA are in the works.

I think it got their attention.

Even the rationalizers sounded nervous.

[Marthe48]

14. Can you connect with countries

Run by sane people? And give them your observations?
Maybe ham radio will survive if rwnj destroy the Internet.

[orangecrush]

15. You can connect with any country

That atmospheric conditions permit.

I spent about $250 on a 10 meter radio and in 3 months have close to 60 countries in my logbook.

Taking politics is frowned upon, but in the event of heavy things going down it is a way to get information out to the world.

[Marthe48]

16. I'm gathering alternate sources for health information

I'll check WHO for vaccination advice.
I found a Canadian site (thanks DUer!) that sends out product recalls.

Finding a reliable source of weather news is on my list.

Ty for the information!

[orangecrush]

17. Most welcome

If you buy a good radio with the a.m. band, you can find a lot of Canadian stations which are a good source for news.

[Bengus81]

18. Who needs up to date forecasts,data,historical and such about Hurricanes?

Hope you fucks in RED States are up for this one...................

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. Trump administration slashes NOAA staff, fulfilling Project 2025 goal

A Democratic senator said the cuts could be “catastrophic” for the environment and the economy.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-administration-slashes-noaa-staff-fulfilling-project-2025-goal-rcna194223

In last year’s presidential election, voters might not have realized that they were voting for deep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but as The New York Times reported, that’s what Americans are getting anyway.

The Trump administration has begun firing employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the world’s premier centers for climate science. The firings are expected to cost more than 800 people their jobs, out of a total of about 13,000 staff members, according to two people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified for fear of retribution. The notifications went out on Thursday afternoon.

The Washington Post reported that among the fired employees are those “responsible for producing critical weather forecasts, maintaining radar systems, gathering data from satellites and monitoring key commercial fisheries.”.....

As for why, exactly, this is a priority for the Republican administration, neither the White House nor the Department of Commerce, which oversees NOAA, have publicly shed light on the motivation for the cuts. That said, The Hill reported that the far-right Project 2025 blueprint called for “privatizing and reassigning” nearly all of the agency’s functions.

In fact, the document, published by the Heritage Foundation, specifically referred to NOAA as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”

In other words, NOAA officials provided the public with accurate information about the climate crisis; the authors of Project 2025 found those truths inconvenient; and now the Trump administration is undermining the agency in a way that’s likely to set it back years.

A Politico report noted last week that the White House’s “promised assault on federal climate policies” is advancing at a speed “that’s surprising even some of his supporters and critics — and could leave an impact on the planet’s future well after his presidency.”

That assault is ongoing.