By Paul Homewood
You may recall that CCN is a far-left lobby group for the climate agenda. In their own words:
It is a global journalism collaboration that supports, convenes, and trains journalists and newsrooms to produce rigorous climate coverage that engages audiences.
Co-founded in 2019 by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation magazine in association with the Guardian and WNYC, CCNow invites journalists everywhere to transform how our profession covers the defining story of our time. With hundreds of partner news outlets from over 60 countries reaching billions of people, CCNow helps journalists produce more informative and engaging coverage of the climate crisis and its potential solutions.
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/fund-for-constitutional-government/covering-climate-now
This week they have been complaining about Trump wanting to make some efficiency savings in the bloated NOAA organisation:
A Deadly Assault On Weather Reporting
“There will be people who die.” That stark warning came last week from Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, after US president Donald Trump sought to fire more than 800 employees of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As a former TV weathercaster myself, I know the same worry is shared throughout the professional meteorological community.
NOAA houses the National Weather Service, which provides the data and analysis that informs virtually all of the weather forecasts Americans receive, whether via TV or radio broadcasts or their cell phone apps. Emergency alerts to coastal residents as a hurricane approaches? Warnings to farmers about an impending flood or heat wave? A winter weather advisory for mountain-bound ski vacationers? These and countless other life-saving services are at risk if Trump succeeds with his order, which legal experts say violates US law, according to reporting by Inside Climate News.
“Going into the severe weather and hurricane season, this cannot be good,” Al Roker, the chief meteorologist for NBC News, wrote in a social media post responding to the NOAA layoffs.
The public deserves to know what’s at stake. To aid coverage of this developing story, it’s worth noting that NOAA is one of the best investments of taxpayer dollars on record. The National Weather Service’s annual budget of roughly $1.4 billion delivers an economic return in excess of $100 billion, according to one recent study. That’s not surprising, considering how directly the weather affects so much of the economy, including agriculture, air transportation, fishing, tourism, utilities, and commerce. To highlight this angle, reporters can explore the potential losses that companies, universities, and nonprofits may experience with further disruptions to the NOAA workforce. Think of airlines unable to steer their planes safely away from storms and farmers left unaware of an upcoming frost that threatens their entire season’s harvest.
Reporting can also point out that providing critical weather and climate information is just one part of NOAA’s work. Eat seafood? NOAA ensures that fish and shellfish from across the world are safe to consume. Enjoy a beach day? NOAA protects you from a number of marine impacts, including tsunamis (recent cuts included one scientist from this team). NOAA’s reach even extends beyond our planet, monitoring solar activity and “space weather” that disrupts global communications.
As climate change drives increasingly volatile and destructive extreme weather across the US and around the world, a reliable understanding of the climate-weather connection is critical to saving lives and ensuring that society can continue to function. Plain-spoken journalism can make clear the consequences if this attempt to cripple NOAA succeeds: People will die.
— David Dickson
CCNow’s TV Engagement Coordinator
Oh dear, poor NOAA!
What these crooks don’t tell you is that these 800 employees facing the boot are just a tiny fraction of the 12,000 employed at NOAA.
Are they really saying that there is no room for efficiency savings?
And if they are worried about the effect on weather forecasting, maybe they should trim some of the fat in the climate change sections, which now dominate all other activities. Just as in our UK Met Office, they are the tail wagging the dog.
Just as in the rest of the public sector, both in the UK and US, NOAA employees believe they are irreplaceable. And as here, many are still “working” from home – 500 have already accepted the government’s “fork in the road deal”, which pays them to carry on working at home till September and then leave.
The latest 800 are merely probationary employees, so are hardly vital to NOAA’s operation.
CCN’s protestations really are proof that the climate change gravy train is all about money and ripping off taxpayers.