NOAA cancels monthly climate and weather updates call

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says it will “discontinue” its monthly calls, updating journalists about seasonal weather forecasts and the state of the global climate.

A NOAA spokesperson says staff problems – due to the recent cuts, recycling and removing under the administration of President Donald Trump – means that the agency “can’t long support” the calls. However, they say that the monthly reports prepared by the National Centers for Environmental Information run by NOAA will continue to be published.

Another reason why the Agency ends the calls may be because the employees’ fear of driving afoul for the new administration by talking about climate change, says Tom di Liberto, a train climate scientist and specialist in public affairs at NOAA, who were fired during widespread cuts in February. “They won’t be stuck between telling the truth and getting the wrong side of political storage,” he says.

During the monthly calls, NOAA researchers provide updates on a number of forecasts and measurements produced by the Agency. In addition to information on global temperatures on land and in the world seas, the briefs include seasonal weather forecasts for the US and drought information. These calls also give journalists good luck to ask questions to better understand the new information.

In earlier briefings, researchers have openly discussed the role of human -spiced climate change in driving record high temples. But during the last month’s call-the first, which was held during the new administration-noaa scientists, avoided any mention of climate change when discussing high global temperatures in January. The call was and after New scientist Asked the researchers directly to tackle what role climate change played in the high temperatures.

Di Liberto says the agency has not explicitly instructed researchers not to mention climate change. But he knows from contact with current employees that there is an atmosphere for fear of saying the wrong.

“It is fear of being cut, but it is also fear that the work they are doing that will help people will stop, or fear of being that they cannot say what they are able to say based on science,” he says.

Sales January has the administration fired almost a thousand people from the agency and hundreds have withdrawn more. The administration plans to cut more than a thousand more employed, a tenant of the agency’s workforce.