The White House wants to cut funding 17 percent at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA), one of the government’s chief resources for climate science, according to a budget memo from the Office of Management and Budget obtained by The Washington Post.
The OMB specifically called for spending reductions in education, grants and research. “NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research would lose $126 million, or 26 percent, of the funds it has under the current budget,” says the Post. “Its satellite data division would lose $513 million, or 22 percent, of its current funding under the proposal.” OMB’s document also proposed eliminating $73 million from coastal research programs coordinated through 33 universities.
While it’s likely that the exact numbers will change during the course of negotiations between Congress and the White House, environmentalists and scientists are alarmed that the single largest cut at NOAA would affect the National Environmental Satellite and Information Service, a trove of climate change and environmental data. The service recently published research showing that there had been no slowdown in the rate of climate change, a fact that irked some Republican lawmakers.
Some scientists have come forward to contest the cuts, saying they not only hurt research but endanger the American public. According to Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA administrator under President Barack Obama, 90 percent of the information backing weather forecasts depends on satellites. “Cutting NOAA’s satellite budget will compromise NOAA’s mission of keeping Americans safe from extreme weather and providing forecasts that allow businesses and citizens to make smart plans,” she said.