Scientists react to ‘stupid’ NOAA firings with more on...

A former climate scientist called layoffs ‘malevolence’ and ‘utter cluelessness’. 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.

Image Credit: The Independent [NOAA scientists provide the public with critical climate data and forecasting, helping to save lives. Without employees in these roles, they say the U.S. is less safe]

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.

Image Credit: The Independent [Hurricane forecasters and physicial scientists were affected just under 100 days before the Atlantic hurricane season. Impacts from the decisions to lay off NOAA employees are already happening]

“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.

That was a sentiment shared by many scientists, including both those impacted by that swing and others outside of NOAA. 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.

A multitude of politicians have chimed in to amplify that message. 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.