P2025 wants to break up, privatize NOAA.

[Sogo]

This came to mind when I was awakened this morning at 4:30 by tornado sirens going off in my town.

I guess they don't care if whole towns in the midwest get wiped off the map with no warning, just as long as government agencies can't talk about climate change.

[tinrobot]

1. The Felon is still harboring a grudge over the Sharpie incident

[Jim__]

2. Why go after NOAA? My guess, some of the billionaires will provide free weather information to us.

Free information, along with a dose of climate change denial.


From NOAA

Though we often think about human-induced climate change as something that will happen in the future, it is an ongoing process. Ecosystems and communities in the United States and around the world are being impacted today.

Global temperatures rose about 1.98°F offsite link (1.1°C) from 1901 to 2020, but climate change refers to more than an increase in temperature. It also includes sea level rise, changes in weather patterns like drought and flooding, and much more. Things that we depend upon and value — water, energy, transportation, wildlife, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health — are experiencing the effects of a changing climate.
A complex issue

The impacts of climate change on different sectors of society are interrelated. Drought can harm food production and human health. Flooding can lead to disease spread and damages to ecosystems and infrastructure. Human health issues can increase mortality, impact food availability, and limit worker productivity. Climate change impacts are seen throughout every aspect of the world we live in. However, climate change impacts are uneven across the country and the world — even within a single community, climate change impacts can differ between neighborhoods or individuals. Long-standing socioeconomic inequities can make underserved groups, who often have the highest exposure to hazards and the fewest resources to respond, more vulnerable.

The projections of a climate change-impacted future are not inevitable. Many of the problems and solutions offsite link are known to us now, and ongoing research continues to provide new ones. Experts believe there is still time to avoid the most negative of outcomes by limiting warming offsite link and reducing emissions to zero as quickly as possible. Reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases will require investment in new technology and infrastructure, which will spur job growth. Additionally, lowering emissions will lessen harmful impacts to human health, saving countless lives and billions of dollars in health-related expenses.

...

[Eugene]

4. The last serious talk about privatizing NOAA was when Shrub was president.

While everybody wants the lucrative consumer side of weather forecasting,
nobody wants to do the capital-intensive heavy lifting of data collection,
the weather satellites, buoys, supercomputers, hurricane hunters, etc.

It's as unworkable as ever, but the far right is willing to try it.
This is part of fever dream they've had since the days of Saint Ronnie.

[keep_left]

6. I remember that Rick Santorum had a weird bee in his bonnet about that.

His fanboy thing for privatizing NOAA coincided with the desires of one of his cronies (of course).

...these public agencies compete with the for profit business of AccuWeather, whose owner Joel Myers has been pushing to have them shut down or at least forced to give all their data to AccuWeather instead...

Santorum tried to privatize weather when he was a Senator in favor of Accuweather who’s owner was a big donor to him.

https://democraticunderground.com/100219251257#post4
https://democraticunderground.com/100219251257#post5

[-misanthroptimist]

7. If I'm not mistaken...

...the founder of The Weather Channel was, and probably still is, a big climate denialist. (He's no longer associated with TWC.) Privatizing NOAA and a couple of other government entities was one of his bright ideas back in the late 90s or early 00s.

[biophile]

3. For-profit weather information

For-profit weather information 🤨. What could go wrong? What a terrible idea!

[alarimer]

5. It is so dumb and dangerous

Imagine have to pay to know the weather. You would never have any warnings before storms, or the cost would be extortionate.

These people are so stupid, they have no idea the repercussions.