DOGE Ransacks NOAA, Raising Fears About Privatization of Climate Data

[milestogo]

Right-wing climate denialists accuse the National Weather Service of promoting alarmism over the climate crisis.

By Mike Ludwig Truthout
Published February 8, 2025

Under orders from President Donald Trump, unelected tech billionaire Elon Musk and his rogue unit, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have taken a political sledgehammer to federal agencies as part of a top-down personnel and cost-cutting shakeup that has been derided by Democrats and legal experts as unconstitutional.

Employees across the federal government have faced intimidation and threats of layoffs as part of Trump and Musk’s effort to cut spending without congressional approval and replace career civil servants with loyalists. Trump and DOGE face legal challenges, but observers fear the damage will be done by the time courts step in, including to critical research and services the public relies on to stay safe as the climate crisis intensifies.

When DOGE barged into the offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric A (NOAA) this week, the scrutiny from Musk’s unelected and unaccountable team added to fears that the collection of agencies the nation relies on to manage fisheries, track climate change, forecast hurricanes and issue severe weather warnings will be gutted and privatized under Trump. Musk reportedly staffed DOGE with young, inexperienced engineers from Silicon Valley.

“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former NOAA fisheries official who was quoted in The Guardian on Tuesday. More than over 100 civil society groups are demanding that Congress investigate DOGE, but leaders of the Republican majority have downplayed or defended Musk’s efforts. On Wednesday, Democratic Representatives Jared Huffman and Zoe Lofgren of California said “DOGE hackers” have unlawfully gained access to private personal information and are gutting critical programs at federal agencies.

https://truthout.org/articles/doge-ransacks-noaa-raising-fears-about-privatization-of-climate-data/