The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will no longer track the cost of climate change-fueled weather disasters, including floods, heat waves, wildfires and more. It is the latest example of changes to the agency and the Trump administration limiting federal government resources on climate change.
NOAA falls under the U.S. Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring. It is also parent to the National Weather Service.
The agency said its National Centers for Environmental Information would no longer update its Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database beyond 2024, and that its information — going as far back as 1980 — would be archived.
They will have to pick between lip service (and hiding the changes by, say, quietly pulling out of places?) and government retribution. Mark my words, at some point they will go after any kind of “climate agenda.”
And that balance will depend on leadership. I mentioned Berkshire specifically because (at the top level, at least) they’re pretty old school with a low tolerance for nonsense, and big enough to eat the retribution.