With labs that measure global temperatures, melting Arctic ice, and levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, NOAA provides indisputable evidence that the climate crisis is real, which flies in the face of Trump’s pro-fossil fuel agenda. Timothy Whitehouse, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which protects civil servants, especially whistleblowers, working on environmental issues, said NOAA’s labs are at risk of being defunded and transformed into a commercial venture that sells data to private industry, rather than a public service meant to warn everyone about heat waves and intensifying storms.
“What I call the Musk-Trump confederacy to destroy government functions and privatize what’s left of the valuable parts of these agencies is absolutely frightening, and we cannot allow these very large powerful corporations to control public data and to monetize it for their own benefit,” Whitehouse said in an interview.