August M
Protecting the planet often requires an advanced network of technology working quietly behind the scenes.
When sudden political shifts threaten these vital systems, lawmakers and researchers find themselves on a collision course. A bitter battle has now erupted in Washington over a tracking network, reports The Guardian.
Supreme stupidity
A bipartisan group of American politicians is fighting to save a massive environmental project from being torn apart. According to a report by The Guardian, a coalition of lawmakers sent urgent letters to the National Science Foundation demanding a halt to its new plans.
The federal agency intends to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $386 million network of 900 marine sensors tracking climate change. Following proposed budget cuts, the agency plans to remove most devices by 2027. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley lashed out at the sudden decision during an interview with the Associated Press.
“It just seems like this is supreme stupidity and a violation of the fundamental distribution of powers in our constitution,” Merkley stated. He added, “This program is authorized, it’s funded, and for the administration to shut it down without direction from Congress violates that vision in which the people’s representatives decide what’s done and funded, and the executive branch executes that vision.”
Coastal danger
Merkley teamed up with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski to pressure the agency. In a joint letter, they warned that pulling the deep-water sensors could leave coastal towns vulnerable to severe weather like El Niño.
“Eliminating most of this complex ocean monitoring system threatens the safety of our coastal communities while undermining our nation’s ability to monitor coastal environments, marine currents, and extreme weather events,” the senators wrote.
House Democrats went even further, calling the dismantling illegal because the agency failed to give Congress proper notice. Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman signed a letter demanding that the agency “cease this expensive, destructive, and, crucially, illegal action at once”. They slammed using public funds to destroy equipment.
Pathetic destruction
“Instead of paying for the valuable insights that can be gleaned from the 10-years-and-counting continuous monitoring, taxpayers are now paying for research vessels to span the ocean dredging up hundreds of pieces of instrumentation. This is pathetic,” the House letter states.
Meanwhile, the agency defended its shift toward new technologies. In an official statement, the organization insisted, “NSF remains committed to ocean science and will continue working with the scientific community on high-priority research objectives,”
Sources: The Guardian, Associated Press
