The Trump administration has cut off access to data used globally for warnings about disasters and shortages.
The Trump administration notified contributors to the national climate assessment on Monday that they’ve been “dismissed” as it re-evaluates the scope of the report, the New York Times says. Since 2000, the report has been a key resource detailing how each region of the US is affected by drought, wildfire, flooding and other climate disasters.
It’s gathering “extremely precise” wind measurements using an instrument that sends out 200 laser pulses per second from an aircraft. By documenting how those pulses bounce off aerosol particles, NASA’s able to create 3D profiles showing wind speed and direction.
The hope is that this can make up for a dearth in data on winds above the surface of the Earth, which could lead to more accurate storm forecasts.
MIT Technology Review visited the eerie tree farms Apple and other companies rely on to try to cancel out their carbon emissions. Are they really helping to fight climate change? Or are they making problems worse? It’s complicated, and controversial, and a good read.
[technologyreview.com]
A leaked memo from the Office of Management and Budget proposes drastic cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency that leads weather and climate research in the US.
”We’ll go back to the technical and proficiency levels we had in the 1950s,” former NOAA acting chief scientist Craig McLean tells ProPublica.
