#rickspinrad — Public Fediverse posts

#EarthDay and the Imperative of Scientific Integrity by #RickSpinrad
This year, as a contentious debate over #offshorewind energy unfolds along the Atlantic coastline, we are once again confronting a familiar tension: the need for urgent environmental action and disagreement over the #science that should guide it. It underscores a simple truth: science is most powerful when it remains grounded in evidence and public trust.
https://scilight.substack.com/p/earth-day-and-the-imperative-of-scientific

At Least 880 Workers Were Fired at #US #Weather Agency
#NOAA employed 12,000 people, including 6,700 #science personnel
Hundreds more employees are expected to be let go at NOAA as soon as Friday, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private.
#RickSpinrad said “The mission will suffer. The agency was already understaffed, so if you are cutting into it, you are already cutting into bone.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-28/at-least-880-workers-were-fired-at-us-weather-agency
https://archive.ph/kYd2v

‘Cruel and thoughtless’: Trump fires hundreds at #US #climate and #weather agency #NOAA
#RickSpinrad, who served as Noaa administrator until January, said the cuts are “at best misguided and ill-informed”. At worst, he said, they will be “dangerously risky to the lives and property of Americans all around the country”.
Ordinary #Americans who rely on Noaa’s #extremeweather forecasts, climate data and sustainably-monitored fisheries will also suffer. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/trump-noaa-cuts-climate

#CarbonDioxide levels in the atmosphere are surging "faster than ever" to beyond anything humans ever experienced
"Over the past year, we've experienced the hottest year on record, the hottest #ocean temperatures on record, and a seemingly endless string of #heatwaves, #droughts, #floods, #wildfires and storms," #NOAA Administrator #RickSpinrad said in a press release. "Now we are finding that atmospheric #CO2 levels are increasing faster than ever."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carbon-dioxide-levels-surging-faster-than-ever-noaa-scientists/ #climatechange