Trump admin faces backlash over plan to dismantle ocean sensor
- A bipartisan group of senators and two Democratic House committees are challenging the National Science Foundation's (NSF) plan to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a crucial ocean monitoring network.
- The OOI, a $386 million network of over 900 sensors, has tracked ocean circulation, climate change, and extreme weather for a decade, with data freely available and contributing to over 500 scientific publications.
- The NSF plans to remove most OOI instruments by 2027, citing 'evolving scientific priorities,' a decision that scientists say was made without warning or scientific review.
No doubt the decision was made without warning because there is only one conclusion a scientific review was ever likely to reach. It would also be designed to take longer than Donald Trump's remaining time as US President.
It's what they do.
2 comments:
Clearly other concerned Governments could step up to continue funding - but if they don't then they too have other 'evolving scientific priorities'.
DJ - that's a good point, they could buy up the whole project including the staff and the hardware. But as you say, they will have other 'evolving scientific priorities'.
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