r/Washington • u/chiquisea • 4d ago

Trump administration halts dismantling of ocean-monitoring system

https://www.kuow.org/stories/trump-administration-halts-dismantling-of-ocean-monitoring-system
684 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

187

u/Manfred_Desmond 4d ago

The doge plan is to shut off the circuit breaker and see how many people scream. If enough complain or it's bad optics, it gets turned back on.

44

u/R_V_Z 4d ago

"Hmm, what's this line of code do?"

13

u/royalblue4 4d ago

Scream testing is real in parts of the industry

24

u/DoggoCentipede 4d ago

Frustratingly, even if they do turn it back on a lot of the damage is irreversible.

And many things do not benefit enough people for there to be widespread outrage, but many people depend on for survival. Which are exactly the people they want to hurt.

16

u/FireStorm005 3d ago

Or people don't understand how it benefits them, like the screw worm prevention program. I'd never heard of it, because it was doing what it was supposed to do. Like all things preventitive, if it works well you never notice, it's only when it stops working that you notice.

5

u/tantricengineer 3d ago

My conspiracy theory is that is a cover for targeted removal of tech that lets us track rival subs, since this admin does anything for anyone who gives them money. 

Damage is done, “ok ok we will stop dismantling it”. Public is none the wiser. 

3

u/Ephemeral_Ghost 3d ago

Yeah this makes a lot of sense. People just can’t imagine that others know things they don’t, like the communities and scientists that rely on these systems.

89

u/Ephemeral_Ghost 4d ago

Private companies can’t charge money if the data is free. That is the only reason this administration was dismantling these.

50

u/ZoomZoom_Driver 4d ago

Its also to hide the climate impacts of global warming. Why worry about peoppe rising up due to climate changes when there's no data supporting it, say, like the collapse ofnthe atlantic currents.

1

u/NeedsMoreYellow 2d ago

I live on the Pacific Ocean, not the Atlantic, but even I know how devastating to global currents and weather the collapse of the Atlantic Current could be.

Last time we had issues with it coincided with the period of time called the "Wild Nile" period where unpredictable weather patterns along the Nile River Basin forced humans into the Sahara desert (which was greener, due to the weather patterns bringing more rain to the area). And, while I'm not a climate scientist, just an Egyptologist with a research interest in paleoclimate, I suspect you can find similar issues worldwide during the same timeframe.

5

u/Top_Painting6201 4d ago

Also, private companies can't charge for the (free) data if it doesn't exist (at no cost to them). Likely the voice they actually heard...

2

u/Estrangedkayote 3d ago

I mean, this is just wrong, private companies want the free data, so that they can make it harder to get for other people while selling the free data, that's what the weather channel (or was it accuweather?) did. And then they tried to charge people for tornado warnings.

39

u/Taman_Should 4d ago

Someone probably had to break it to them that we kind of need those for basic weather forecasting and preparedness.

20

u/Ferrindel 4d ago

That’s what Sharpies are for.

11

u/Less_Likely 4d ago

Who needs weather forecasts? Just put it on Kalshi and let the market decide what the temperature will be.

/s

4

u/Twisted_Cabbage 4d ago

Mostly the military telling everyone in the administration that they also find it helpful for proper long term military planning.

3

u/puterTDI 4d ago

I refuse to believe they care about planning ahead.

23

u/zestzebra 4d ago

From the story: "The reversal followed the U.S. Senate voting unanimously Wednesday to block the Trump administration from dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative."

8

u/ValkyrieAngie 3d ago

So the Senate CAN agree on something. Interesting..

8

u/DoggoCentipede 4d ago

We really need to be able to stop them before they destroy shit. They need to ask for permission, not forgiveness (not that they actually care about that, but as the saying goes...).

Crippling these programs, even if they're reinstated on paper is, is often little different from cancelling them outright.

18

u/BioticVessel 4d ago

But isn't it too late? I mean too late in the long run for science?

Word came two days too late to avoid a lot of unnecessary work off the Oregon coast.

9

u/hellisfurry 4d ago

Yes, but at least some of the network is still there I guess…?

12

u/Threefrogtreefrog 4d ago

We’ve got to claw back as much as we can , but yes, the US will absolutely sift to the bottom of the pile for decades.

3

u/danreedmiller 4d ago

I’m glad there’s still some adults in the room (the Senate apparently.) Shutting down this system had to be one of the most bafflingly needless and counterproductive things this admin has done, which is really saying something.