U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

Some of the specific grants that have been cancelled are shocking in the negative effect they will have on the ecosystem. Cutting off Sean Eddy, a giant in DNA analysis, just baffles the mind:

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/11/nx-s1-5807995/some-researcher...

There's not even any political angle to pursue here, it is just lighting knowledge on fire with no grander purpose.

People here are missing that they're not dismantling random things. There is a system to it, the objective of which is far more sinister than mere ideology.

The sensors in question here are crucial to monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

They don't want that monitored because it is currently breaking down. Not some arbitrary far away time, now.

The science of this gets astroturfed into some nonsense "we don't really know". We do.

But conveniently, now the data to show this to the incredulous won't exist.

Yeah, that was one massive benefit of the fragmentation of scientific funding, just like how in the private sector there's a great diversity of funders, of employers, etc. etc. etc.

All that's now been reduced to a single kill switch at the very top, and they're trying to change all the non-political positions into political appointees so that they have control not only with a veto at the top, but control of every single decision along the entire way, without any of that pesky scientific merit getting in the way.

This is a good point but its apple vs oranges. This administration is literally politicizing and destroying science funding.

Call me crazy, but I think climate scientists can enumerate major carbon sources and sinks. Unfortunately your comment is so vague that I can't tell if you're referring to a specific thing some person said or if you're just imagining a guy to be mad at.

> cannot enumerate the major sources/sinks of carbon on the planet

What climate scientist can't do this? Are you talking about non-scientists calling people "science deniers"? Or are you denying that climate scientists have been able to do this, in which case yes you are literally a science-denier?

Nonetheless, you can't excuse harming the future of the entire nation because somebody had their feelings hurt. The stakes are bigger, here.

The vast majority of carbon sources and sinks can be attributed. Even the sinks are probably 80+% attributed at this point despite being more difficult to identify via remote sensing.

In order to usher in their Theocratic Dictatorship, they need to have an un-educated population. This is the start. I hope it takes a few generations and the tide can be turned. But at this rate, the US might end within the next couple years, not decades.

I don't think they are really even trying to hide it. Project 2025 was pretty obvious road map.

It feels more like we've jumped straight to mob rule (with tinges of oligarchy, which are not new really)

A small price to pay to increase the standing of a select few. /s

More than that if you're a professor (and thus an educator for the next generation) you're now incentivized to modify your speech in favour of the authoritarian in order to keep getting funding.

I wouldn't underestimate the degree to which funding to these is being cut because climate scientists have historically been politically opposed to certain large republican donors that make their fortunes burning fossil fuels.

It was also the first things Hitler and Mussolini did once they got power.

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When do we get to the part where we all collectively wake up and realize they are the enemy of the American People? You know, the part with the guillotines?

Seriously, when our tax dollars pay for idiots to play around with lizard spit[1] all day, why should we trust anything they want to fund?

[1] https://biomedical-sciences.uq.edu.au/article/2024/04/rise-o...

Aren't you in any way concerned that you can't give a real example of the sort of thing you're talking about, and have to make one up? This should be the wake-up call that makes you re-evaluate your priors.

The reality is that reactionaries often describe "useless" scientific endeavors like "condoms for worms" that end up being the only thing stopping parasitic screwworms from infesting the US cattle herd, which will end up costing us hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve- and spike the already-high cost of beef for decades.

    #1 Center for Integrated Quantum Materials
    #2 a STEM Graduate Education Model for American Indians and Native Alaskans
    #3 Identity Development Evaluation of African American Science Students 
    #4 The Greater Alabama Black Belt Region (GABBR) LSAMP
    #5 A Model to Advance Historically Underrepresented Minorities
    #6 The Hispanic AGEP Alliance for the Environmental Science
    #7 "" [different recipient]
    #8 Puerto Rico Center for Environmental Neuroscience (Cycle II)
    #9 Advancing Inclusive Leaders in Astronomy
    #10 Intersectional Directions to Engender Success

There's nobody gatekeeping what can be studied and what can't. You claim millions are being wasted; by who? Is the goverment funding the studies you deem as wasted? If so you'd think that rather than making up a study you'd be able to give a single example. Should be very easy if millions are being wasted on these what I'd assume you'd call "bogus" studies.

Instead of getting upset about made up scenarios, why don't you find some real scenarios? Like the one this thread is discussing, for instance.

A lot of this “dubious science” isn’t dubious at all. Rather, people just have a political view on it. Like climate change is considered dubious science by the right. It’s not, but that’s how they view it.

To me this argument sounds like, " the Dems funded too much trans science so you made us defund climate and social science and damage the rest"

Is that about right?

> a made-up scenario, but there are many like it)

There are many made-up scenarios, but not many real examples of what you are using to justify the weakening of the entire nation.

And the fact that you had to fabricate something is literally proof of it. Now, go find any supposed "waste" and you'll find that, again, the science has been completely misrepresented to the public by an anti-science media source that was focused on creating fake propaganda rather than properly informing the public.

Seriously. Prove me wrong, go find all this bath water that you claim exists, post it here!

Exactly, it’s a failure to gatekeep and self-police. You can’t tell truths about rocks and lies about people.

It's pretty clear that peyton is just trolling this discussion right now.

And if they do accidentally destroy something that they want, it can be rebuilt by a private contractor friendly to the administration.

That number, incidentally, is the entire NATO military budget. Which scares me because I can imagine someone planning on taking action that would result in the dissolution of NATO thinking they can make up the difference that way and choosing that number with that in mind.

Is it actually coming out of the military budget? I assumed we were just going to get taxed for it, or they'd pull it from some other places that actually needs the funds.

Alternatively, they could just increase the military budget by 300 billion (or more).

No, that was fake news. The 300 billion dollars isn't coming from the US.

> do the illegal thing ASAP, let the courts argue for months or years, and maaaaaybe get a slap on the wrist sometime way in the future.

don't forget that the courts have already decided that anything this president does is legally okay because he's immune from punishment for breaking any law as long as they decide the illegal activity was an "official act".

Well the majority party in Congress could put a stop to it at any time. The fact that they don't, and haven't just on about any related issue, tells you everything you need to know. They just don't want to put their names on it in case public opinion sours, then they can at least try to keep their jobs and claim innocence.

Congress isn't toothless so I just don't see how I can believe anything but that the majority of congress, whether they claim opposition or not, is onboard with this nonsense. They are completely out of touch and it seems like they are just playing a game of PR hot potato to avoid taking any real action.

If they just abandon them then a subsequent administration can simply re-activate them without being forced to spend even more money.

Astronaut meme: it was never about cost savings

it's not strange or random idiocy

they are intentionally making it difficult for the next administration to flip the switch back on to monitoring again; it would now require $100s of millions to reconstruct the system, money that may not be easy to get congress/taxpayers to agree to

If you are in the oil, gas and coal business and the money spent is coming out of someone else's pocket then it's a great deal.

hackers used to be a large percentage of software engineers and are indeed intelligent people with an open mind.

However since ~2005 their percentage of the total has gone from ~25% to <1% as computers became less of a hobby and a way to make money.

> Meanwhile the actual national debt soars, and under who? Yep, fucking right wingers again.

Exactly. If the people on the right cared at all about government spending they'd never vote republican again, which just shows us that they don't actually care about government spending. They don't seem to want to talk about the things they really do care about too loudly though.

I'm not following what this comment is supposed to address from what I wrote.

The US government is taking some action (they take all sorts of actions people agree or disagree with, fund or defund various programs or initiatives), and because some people disagree with that action we should create a special tax levy on "some rich text workers" to pay for something that some number of citizens want to see exist despite the government that was democratically elected defunding that various program? Maybe when Democrats win we can just tax a few Anthropic employees and have them pay for the natural gas power plants that get shut down and then we can tax them again when Republicans shut down the wind and solar turbines. Perfect!

That, which is an accurate description of what was proposed, seems a bit unworkable, to say the least. Any why limit it to these sensors? Why not pay for all sorts of things? Let's just tax tech workers and they'll fund all sorts of activities that some political groups want to see happen?! lol that's so crazy and doesn't at all make sense in a democratic nation that respects the rule of law.

There is no way to know what Jesus would or wouldn't like. Most religious people interpret their chosen text in whatever way best fits their preferences and lifestyle. In this case, they like war, so that means Jesus also likes war: https://jonathanlarsen.substack.com/p/us-troops-were-told-ir.... It is trivial to find Bible verses supporting war if that's what you're looking for: https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-....

I don't think they literally believe it. They ostensibly espouse this for political purposes, but it doesn't appear they believe in any permanent objective or thing other than their own power and profit.

It's not, it's Hegseth and others that are Christian Zionists. This is not "christians who like zionism", it's a specific evangelical sect that interprets global conflicts as literal fulfillments of biblical prophecy. The popular tenants of Christian Zionists include that women should be subservient to men, homosexuals are evil, white christians should rule supreme, the confederates got a bad rap, COVID and global warming are a conspiracy, and the big kicker: armageddon is coming and we must prepare the way for Jesus to rule the earth. In order to do that they need to wage holy war / WW3 so that Jesus can come back, defeat everyone, and make a new Earth and rule over it. This is why Hegseth said he's fighting a holy war, why he has Crusader tattoos, etc. It's the Christian version of Islamic Extremism. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Wilson_(theologian) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hagee)

“He urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ,” the NCO wrote in the email. “He said that ‘President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.’" - https://www.military.com/daily-news/2026/03/06/lawmakers-wan...

As the old joke went, the easiest way to not have detected covid cases in the country is to stop testing. Very simple, very effective.

That is exactly what is happening.

Records of environmental data are a huge pain in the ass for those invested in fossil energy and adjacent industries.

The truth is hurting business and they seem to be going on a rampage actively killing it at the roots. Stop collecting and recording data, destroy and hide the existing data and close the institutions.

Not just climate data, they are changing how census data is aggregated so they can reverse-individualize for political goals, discussed 3 days ago.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48517377

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/12/nx-s1-5855734/census-bureau-d...

This is not true, most people care about climate change, even in the US (https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/yc...). Maybe you think "if they care then why are they still driving/flying/eating meat/whatever" and I sympathize, but climate change is not an issue that will be solved by individuals taking responsibility, in the same way that wars still happen even when the vast majority of the population oppose them.

If you're wondering why they don't at least vote for someone who cares about climate change, I don't know. But claiming people don't care at all is not true and is self-defeating, because it makes people who do care think "I guess I'm in the minority, there's no point in trying".

> Honestly, at this point, having natural disasters with destruction and death is probably the only way to make people care

We already have them. People just claim they're chance effects with no connection to climate change.

The problem with refuting it is that they are chance events, there's no way to definitively say "this was caused by climate change", because it's always possible it would have happened anyways. It's the upwards trend in frequency and severity that we can definitively point and say "that's caused by climate change", but that's too abstract for most people to understand.

Well, it is an El Nino year...

Best start thinking about those implications because it is unwise to underestimate what is coming.

Vought, Miller and others in the Admin, are evil, but not stupid. This is intentionally destroying the system to make it very difficult for a future administration to get it going again.

it is extremely difficult to do in cases like this. again, why are we pulling the sensors? why not leave them in place and stop paying for maintenance?

why not find alternate funding mechanisms?

because we know who these people are, and what their motives are. they show us time and and time again.

empathy is something to be used against us.

How would you explain it? It seems either entirely ideological on the part of its architects, cynically designed to appeal to a political base that has been inculcated with that ideology, or cynically designed to enrich its architects' political and business allies under cover of appealing to a political base that has been inculcated with that ideology. Possibly some combination of those three. But the core issue is opposition to and misrepresentation of scientific consensus, on the part of an administration that has referred to its political opponents as "the enemy from within".

Maybe it's part of the Epstein files, he was famously wearing US Coast Guard shirts ;)

If it also contains a sensor network to detect adversary ships and submarines, it would be bad if someone else can use it to track US submarines. Or the sensors are too old and their resolution can't detect modern mini submarines or autonomous drone ships such as the ones the Ukraine is using in the black sea, so they need to be upgraded.

These people are PR professionals and have been doing propaganda since generations. If Trump speaks about Greenland he does not mean the country but he uses it to bury another Greenland entity that he does not want to be associated with. Same with Canada the country vs. Cañada the Spanish word. Bonus is if they can ragebait their political opponents because then nobody will ever again be able to find the original story with these keywords.

And to me this kind of story and easy anti-climate-change narrative checks all the boxes.

People in the libertarian SV techbro world actually fall for the randian crap and believe that’s what they are getting.

And that’s the charitable interpretation.

Wow that quote is the most useless bullshit bunch of words I've seen strung together recently. It says a whole lot of nothing in the most insulting way possible. Must have been written by a highly paid consultant.