Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System
- Reference: 0183561044
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/06/02/2336255/trump-administration-to-dismantle-ocean-monitoring-system
- Source link:
> The ocean observation system began operating in 2016 and was expected to continue for 25 years. Jim Edson, a marine meteorologist who led the Ocean Observatories Initiative, called it "the world's most advanced continuously operating ocean observing systems." When it was first proposed, the science foundation said it was important to have a long-term presence at scientifically important sites in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Removing the instruments [2]could take 15 months . Seismic instruments positioned around an active underwater volcano off Oregon will continue operating until 2028.
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> Each observation station consists of several moorings that secure long arrays of devices connected to wires. The devices measure ocean currents as well as chemical and biological conditions from the water's surface down thousands of feet. The instruments were hardened to resist the pressure of the deep ocean, corrosive seawater as well as marine plants and animals that can foul electronics. Remotely controlled robotic vehicles and gliders around the moorings collect and transmit data to research laboratories.
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> It cost $48 million annually to operate the network. The Trump administration repeatedly tried to shutter it, proposing to cut its funding by 80 percent in both 2025 and again in 2026. Congress pushed back, restoring the money. To try to reduce costs, managers turned off some of the instruments and collected less data, according to a December 2025 presentation about the observatories at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, a nonprofit organization of scientists. Still, the science foundation moved ahead to decommission the observatory network.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/climate/ocean-observatories-initiative.html
[2] https://oceanobservatories.org/2026/05/nsf-ooi-descoping-update-for-the-community/
D.o.g.e. (Score:4, Interesting)
Wouldn't it be more efficient to leave the monitors in the ocean and do nothing. Why waste money/effort collecting them.
Re:D.o.g.e. (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it would be hugely expensive to put them back in 2 years, and thus 'wasteful'. And it would break the continuity of data. What a bunch of cunts this administration is. When all is said and done I seriously hope some of them will be found out to have colluded with foreign powers and hung for treason.
Re: (Score:3)
If you're going to be a poorly written caricature of a super-villain you dispense with paying lip service to things like "efficiency". The point is to tear down and destroy, no matter what the cost.
Re: (Score:3)
If we would leave the monitors in the ocean it would be possible to turn them back on.
This is evidently not an effort to cut costs but to spend money on dismantling a system that provides inconvenient information. Once dismantled it will be significantly more expensive in any future scenario to get this system back online. Probably now even more than the initial $368 million.
Re: (Score:2)
"...does anyone have any evidence that this system is actually delivering “inconvenient” information?"
Yes, of course, everyone does. The fact that Trump wants to destroy it is that very evidence. Trump wants to destroy anything that threatens his opinions.
"...just maybe a government program spending tens of millions of dollars every year, is a complete waste of time and money regardless of the political party involved?"
As if Trump cares about "tens of millions" or what is a "waste of time and
Re: (Score:2)
> If we just leave them there, democrats will just collect the data for free.
Free? Dare I ask where the hell you grew that delusion? Program costs exceed $40 million a year. And basic math doesn’t give a shit about your political affiliation.
This kind of thinking is why men will be using credit score as a filter on dating apps soon. Because girl math also results in much “free” think.
Re: (Score:2)
"Program costs exceed $40 million a year. And basic math doesn’t give a shit about your political affiliation."
But it does. All "facts" care about political affiliation in Trump's world, and that's the world you're in.
"This kind of thinking is why men will be using credit score as a filter on dating apps soon. Because girl math also results in much “free” think."
Oh look, sexism too.
Re:D.o.g.e. (Score:5, Insightful)
> Wouldn't it be more efficient to leave the monitors in the ocean and do nothing.
Yes.
> Why waste money/effort collecting them.
So that there's no way for this decision to be overturned.
The annual operating costs for this network are so tiny in the overall scheme of the national budget that this must be driven by other, somewhat less noble, reasons.
It reminds me of a friend's toddler who would smash a toy they no longer wanted rather than give it to someone else.
Re: D.o.g.e. (Score:2)
If they leave them there, the next administration might be able to switch them back on and start gathering woke climate science data again.
Re: (Score:2)
> Wouldn't it be more efficient to leave the monitors in the ocean and do nothing. Why waste money/effort collecting them.
Because this is the kind of data collection that strengthens the case that climate change is very much real and ongoing, which endangers the profit margins of their largest corporate donors who don't want to risk being inconvenienced by having to spend money to mitigate that.
Leaving the equipment in place risks a future administration simply turning it all back on again instead of having to spend years and millions of dollars rebuilding it all from scratch first.
shit world (Score:2)
What's the point of balancing the budget if the world is shit after you are done?
Re: (Score:3)
What makes you think there is any interest in balancing the budget? The aim is to continue to buy a stream of 'victories' that can be used to convince a power base to keep voting. Doesn't matter about the budget - you can blame that on whoever 'them' is today.
Re: shit world (Score:2)
How can this be seen as a victory? This is pennies relative to the overall debt. I know I know, wealthy people don't see it the same I guess.
Re: shit world (Score:3)
Successfully dismantled government waste something something overreach something woke ideology something Biden
Re: (Score:2)
Trump doesn't care about debt, debt is just money he's stolen that someone thinks they are going to get back.
And how can it be seen as a victory? Victory is what you care about, stealing is Trump's primary obsession, that's why you support him.
Re: (Score:2)
Donald Trump is a terrorist.
Re: (Score:2)
Is that worse than a rapist and child molester? Those didn't matter to you, now terrorist does?
Re: (Score:2)
A good percentage of the alleged administration is staffed by Christian nutjobs who figure if we fuck the Earth hard enough, then Jesus will return.
The Second Coming:
G-d picks up iPhone and dials.
St. Peter: (A dinka dink, a dinka doo) Yo, Dear Leader!!
G-d: Watch it, little man! Could you get Jesus up here? Got a big job for him.
St. Peter: Sure thing, B-ss.
St. Peter dials Jesus.
Jesus: (You can ring my bell-ell-ell, ring my bell) Whaddya want?
St. Peter: The B-g G-y wants to see you, pronto!
Jesus: Sigh....damn
Re: (Score:2)
"A good percentage of the alleged administration is staffed by Christian nutjobs who figure if we fuck the Earth hard enough, then Jesus will return."
While the first part is true, the second part isn't. The idea that Jesus will return is dependent on different things that fucking the Earth. Also, none of these decisions get made without Trump direction, Trump is definitely not Christian.
Trump doesn't care about the destruction of the Earth, anything that Trump doesn't own needs to be ruined so it doesn't
Re: (Score:2)
We are talking about an administration that has been busy paying companies NOT to do wind farms, and just tried to appropriate billions of dollars to give as gifts to the terrorists behind the J6 attacks.
We are not operating from a rational perspective here, its just pure malice.
Re: (Score:2)
Who cares about the budget once the country is destroyed?
The goal of Republicans is to seize permanent power, the goal of Trump is to take everything. The end game of Trump is that there is no budget except his personal budget ... which he does not pay.
And isn't it your goal that the world is shit after you are done? You support these cretins.
Just stop sharing (Score:2)
The world just needs to stop sharing data/science/technology/medicines/etc etc etc with the USA.
Just shut the US out of everything until such time as they rejoin the sane world.
Treat the USA like a disease, put it into a 2 year isolation to see if it remains contaminated with the "fucking stupid virus".
Re: (Score:2)
The USA doesn't need anyone else, after all.
Re: (Score:2)
Correct .
Yet another scumbag move (Score:2)
Yet another scumbag move, that somehow makes me angrier than other more serious Trump actions.
"Congress pushed back, restoring the money."
So won't Congress block this anyway, meaning it is just more pathetic posturing ? ( Which, after all, is what he does best ).
Re: (Score:2)
We need to take a good hard look at who the real terrorists are.
Re: (Score:3)
This is disgusting and outrageous.
But it is a very long way from "terrorism" or being a "Nazi" or commiting "genocide" or whatever terms the loons use.
Misusing terms like that always weakens your case.
Shouldn't have turned some of them off (Score:2)
As soon as you start compromising with these people they've won.
Re: Is there really point? (Score:2)
Yeah, but it's nice to have the data to be able to measure just how fucked we are. But climate-change-denying people can't be having data like that messing up their beliefs, now, can they?