GWYNNE DYER: Author of US's 'Project 2025' shutting down climate studies |
Newfoundland & Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador Opinion
Share this Story : PNI Atlantic News Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr
GWYNNE DYER: Author of US's 'Project 2025' shutting down climate studies
Russell Vought is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which will have a huge impact on climate studies globally
In 1953, American writer Ray Bradbury published a book entitled simply ‘Fahrenheit 451′. It was a novel about an American fireman in a not-too-distant future who realized that he was doing his job all wrong — because his job was to burn books, which were banned in that future America. (451°F is the temperature at which paper catches fire.)
Subscribe now to access this story and more:
Unlimited access to the website and app
Exclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcasts
Full access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on
Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists
Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists
Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.
Unlimited access to the website and app
Exclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcasts
Full access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on
Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists
Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists
Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.
Access additional stories every month
Share your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting community
Get email updates from your favourite authors
Sign In or Create an Account
The book got a lot of attention and won some major prizes, because it was the time of the second Great Red Scare in the United States: anti-Communist witch-hunts, Senator McCarthy’s Congressional hearings, and, of course, book bans. But Bradbury’s ‘fireman’ hero secretly reads the books, learns the truth, and ends up working to preserve knowledge.
Just what we need right now, in fact, and the ideal hero for our redemptive tale is Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was a lead author in the ‘Project 2025’ plan for transforming the US government into a tool of the hard right, and he urgently needs to be redeemed.
What is Vought doing?
Vought’s current project is to destroy American climate science, which he regularly refers to as “climate alarmism” or “climate fanaticism”.
He is currently taking point on an official drive to break up or close down all the climate-linked scientific institutes that receive federal government money in the United States. (If the facts don’t suit your politics, just erase them.)
His primary target is the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the ‘jewel in the crown’ of American climate science: 830 climate scientists and engineers in a purpose-built building in Boulder, Colorado. Since its creation in 1960 to do research projects bigger than any single university could handle, it has certainly fulfilled its promise.
This week (March 16) is the deadline for proposals for the disposal of various parts of this world-famous institute, whose personnel, equipment and possibly even records will be scattered to the winds. (And the bids will never be disclosed, so no last-minute billionaire angel can swoop in and buy NCAR up as a job lot. This is stake-through-the-heart stuff.)
GWYNNE DYER: Wiser civilizations would be dealing with climate change. Instead, we're dealing with Trump
GWYNNE DYER: Trump and Musk's 'flood the zone' strategy could backfire because of US president himself
Advertisement 1Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.document.addEventListener(`DOMContentLoaded`,function(){let template=document.getElementById(`oop-ad-template`);if(template&&!template.dataset.adInjected){let clone=template.content.cloneNode(!0);template.replaceWith(clone),template.parentElement&&(template.parentElement.dataset.adInjected=`true`)}});
Some of NCAR’s assets may end up in good hands. The supercomputer will probably go to the University of Wyoming, its severe weather research may go to the University of Oklahoma, and a Virginia-based contractor called Lynker is interested in taking over its space weather research.
However, climate scientists will no longer have first call on these research assets, and lots of research that promises no obvious near-term profit will simply be abandoned. Above all, the collegiality and cross-fertilisation of having 830 intelligent and dedicated people with the same research interests in the same building will be lost. There’s nowhere else like that.
Police looking to locate Cape Breton woman last seen at hospital Cape Breton
Police looking to locate Cape Breton woman last seen at hospital
Advertisement 2Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.document.addEventListener(`DOMContentLoaded`,function(){let template=document.getElementById(`oop-ad-template`);if(template&&!template.dataset.adInjected){let clone=template.content.cloneNode(!0);template.replaceWith(clone),template.parentElement&&(template.parentElement.dataset.adInjected=`true`)}});
Cape Breton resident wins Oscar for work on Frankenstein Cape Breton
Cape Breton resident wins Oscar for work on Frankenstein
Lower Sackville man says vicious pit bull attack on family dog will scar them for life Halifax
Lower Sackville man says vicious pit bull attack on family dog will scar them for life
'I messed up': Ontario man sentenced after police find 895 grams of cocaine in camper in P.E.I. Prince Edward Island
'I messed up': Ontario man sentenced after police find 895 grams of cocaine in camper in P.E.I.
Winning Miss Newfoundland and Labrador crown ‘a surreal feeling’: Barry Newfoundland & Labrador
Winning Miss Newfoundland and Labrador crown ‘a surreal feeling’: Barry
What will happen to American climate researchers?
All other government-backed climate research in the United States is also facing destruction.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the world-renowned Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies: they are all on the Trump administration’s hit list.
It doesn’t mean that a couple of thousand American climate scientists will be begging on the streets. The best ones will be snapped up by universities and institutes abroad, especially in Germany, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and Australia (where you are already tripping over emigré American scientists in the better universities).
The younger and more adventurous ones may go farther afield, to big countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia and China, where governments are scrambling to build up their climate science communities as the threat of catastrophic climate damage comes ever closer (for there is where it will hit first and hardest).
Of course, there are still many hundreds of climate scientists in American universities, but their prominence in the international community is fading fast. Only 46 U.S.-based scientists were chosen as authors for key Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports this time, down from 210 in the previous cycle.
What impact will this have globally?
The greater loss for the rest of the world is NCAR, the single biggest node for climate research in the world. Only the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany (300 researchers), the Met Office Hadley Centre in England (200 researchers), and the Climate Change Research Center (300 researchers) of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing even come close.
Numbers matter. Critical mass matters too.
It’s already clear that making it through the next half-century without a climate calamity that radically changes the living conditions on this planet will be a near-run thing. The rest of us cannot afford to lose the Americans.
In the meantime, somebody give Russell Vought a book that isn’t the Bible. He might learn something, even though he is a self-avowed ‘Christian nationalist’.
Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World’s Climate Engineers’. The previous book, ‘The Shortest History of War’, is also still available.
Share this Story : PNI Atlantic News Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr
The best Easter basket stuffers for kids in 2026 Fun options across treats, toys and more 44 minutes ago Gift Guide
The best Easter basket stuffers for kids in 2026
Fun options across treats, toys and more
Advertisement 3Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.document.addEventListener(`DOMContentLoaded`,function(){let template=document.getElementById(`oop-ad-template`);if(template&&!template.dataset.adInjected){let clone=template.content.cloneNode(!0);template.replaceWith(clone),template.parentElement&&(template.parentElement.dataset.adInjected=`true`)}});
Best Amazon Canada deals this weekend: Home, tech and more Take advantage of these Amazon Canada deals before they're gone 2 days ago Deals
Best Amazon Canada deals this weekend: Home, tech and more
Take advantage of these Amazon Canada deals before they're gone
Trying to ditch your phone before bed? We tested the Hatch Restore 3 smart clock Sleep testing the smart clock that helps build phone-free bedtime routines 3 days ago Sleep
Trying to ditch your phone before bed? We tested the Hatch Restore 3 smart clock
Sleep testing the smart clock that helps build phone-free bedtime routines
The Canadian-made storage bed that finally fixes bedroom clutter Sundays’ Dream Bed has a large hidden storage compartment 3 days ago Sleep
The Canadian-made storage bed that finally fixes bedroom clutter
Sundays’ Dream Bed has a large hidden storage compartment
Collecting travel rewards? Avoid these mistakes for a better payoff In the world of travel points, hoarding is a trap and 'earning and burning' is the only winning strategy 3 days ago Travel
Collecting travel rewards? Avoid these mistakes for a better payoff
In the world of travel points, hoarding is a trap and 'earning and burning' is the only winning strategy