"‘Crackdown on climate’ predicted as oversight enacted over agency staffers’ email and meetings with foreign nationals"
"The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has placed onerous new restrictions on its scientists that people within the agency say could hamper the quality and availability of the world’s weather forecasts, among other key services.
The new requirements have created a sense of unease within the agency, according to current and former high-level NOAA scientists and officials the Guardian spoke with, and alarmed partners at European agencies.
“My expectation is that it’s going to be a crackdown on climate,” said a senior NOAA scientist. “People are just somewhere between disturbed and terrified.”
Last week NOAA’s office of research sent a message to all staff saying that “effective immediately”, the agency’s headquarters will implement a new layer of oversight over its scientists’ email and “virtual meetings” with foreign nationals. The new restrictions also require all NOAA employees and affiliates to document “all international engagements” in an internal spreadsheet for approval by a Trump political appointee on a case-by-case basis."
Eric Holthaus and Ajit Niranjan report for the Guardian February 12, 2025.
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