U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

arjie

The scales of money at play always seem so strange. Oh a few hundred million for ocean sensors, or about what a few OpenAI / Cursor employees or a few hundred FAANG employees could personally fund if they desired to do so.

wxw

> Starting this week, the Ocean Observatories Initiative will lose a network of more than 900 ocean sensors from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland. > By 2027, the National Science Foundation will have dismantled most of the system, which had been slated to run another 15 to 20 years. > Scientists had seen warning signs as the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget included a 55% cut to the science foundation. Official word to begin shutting down arrived in early May. Defunding science is embarassing and sad.

bbbrad

Read the article, but I'm still not seeing why the U.S. is pulling these sensors. Anyone have any insight?

fusslo

to be honest I always assumed scientific sensors like those also had military applications either directly or indirectly (installing listening devices at the same time as installing the scientific equipment). That'd be partly why we fund and keep them around. But I guess not!

Hikikomori

Another project 2025 goal essentially, destruction of any real science that doesn't fit whatever "gold standard science" is. https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of-key-change...

waterthrowaway

As a physical oceanographer, the destruction of these observing systems is horrific. It is hard to stress enough how intentionally OMB is trying to disassemble American science. The new (proposed) OMB guidelines prohibit international collaboration without pre approval for example. They also codify a political grant approval process. https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/05/the-office-of-manage... Additionally, OMB is not releasing the congressional appropriated funds that they are required to. This is currently tanking the post-doctoral researcher market and eventually will wipe out a generation of researchers if it isn’t stopped. https://grant-witness.us/funding_curves_nsf.html Please call your elected representatives! It is so so important! https://5calls.org/issue/federal-financial-assistance-scienc...

skeledrew

It's a leveled playing field now. No more pesky "I can provide data that shows..." to stand in the way of making things GREAT AGAIN. All arguments' strength rely on how much money is backing each, which is what makes all things GREAT. Facts are what those with power want it to be, not what some young upstarts claim from reading some machines. And that, again, is GREATNESS!!

rwyinuse

Perhaps EU or China could build their own network of sensors to track this stuff? It's dangerous for so much science to be dependent on a country run by anti-science idiots. I sincerely hope that China wins the AI race, for the sake of myself and my children. The Chinese Communist party might be evil, but at least they accept fundamental natural sciences, and are actively investing in technologies that help avoiding worst climate scenarios. Buying anything American instead of EU or Chinese alternatives has become deeply unethical to me.

throwarayes

This seems to be a case of administration impounding funds authorized by Congress for this purpose. As in they’re just spending what Congress told them to. And unfortunately SCOTUS made it harder for private groups to sue over impounding. And seems to argue only the GAOs comptroller can sue under the impoundments control act (ICA). GAO is the part of Congress that investigates when executive branch isn’t enforcing the law / spending funds. But have themselves limited ability to enforce anything. It’s another post watergate reform eroded by Trump II. The ICA was created to stop these sorts of impoundments that happens with Nixon and earlier. Notably members of Congress are working to pause the dismantling https://apnews.com/article/ocean-observatories-initiative-tr...

Danox

The countries on the other side of the Pacific in East Asia will just have to pick up the slack and the same applies to those on the European side of the Atlantic, just another signal of the decline of the United States. I’m sure that the same will apply to the weather satellites above.

deadbabe

What else can we say to stuff like this except fuck the United States?

TrackerFF

Let me guess, they want it privatized? IIRC, Project 2025 argued that private companies provided more accurate weather forecasts, and thus one can just dismantle gov. agencies like NOAA and the market for such services will take care of itself.

20after4

Look at all of the headlines coming out of the department of energy: https://www.energy.gov/newsroom Lots of them related to coal and LNG. Most prominently: https://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-department-invest-350... The policy of the federal government is anti renewable energy and pro coal, pro oil. Oil executives are profiting from the situation with Iran. These guys don't want us to have cheap renewable energy. They want us to keep paying their tolls and they don't want anyone to have access to evidence that could continue exposing the damage they've done to the environment.

fancyfredbot

I understand the present US administration would want to stop funding this, and that they have the power to do so. I don't understand how that has led to the sensor network being dismantled. Surely it would have been cheaper to leave it in place and stop maintaining it?

jdw64

I cannot understand the decision to withdraw this for purely political reasons. What I don't understand about the Trump administration is that they are dismantling all of America's diplomatic power. Trump has the 'ability to become president'—self PR, black propaganda against opponents, that sort of thing. But he does not have the 'ability to run a country.' As Professor Ed Dever said, after ten years we are only now beginning to get 'some hints,' yet they present it as if no solution has been offered. But this kind of data is long term time series data. If some of it gets damaged, it would take decades of operation again. The value being undermined in the United States is enormous. They withdraw this simply because their supporters don't believe in climate change, for the sake of approval ratings. But this damages trust in long term research projects in the US, and America's leadership in the R&D world. If the cost is that high, why did they go to war with Iran? There are so many things I don't understand. Why, while calling themselves a consumer nation, are they destroying the hegemony they themselves built? True dominance requires the consent of the governed. America's status as the strongest superpower was a product of the consent of surrounding subordinate nations. That's what Antonio Gramsci talked about. Things the US scaled back, like USAID, also created a favorable image of American imperialism. So even though the US invaded and destroyed South American countries in reality, it played a role in making people believe it was truly about freedom and progress. That is symbolic capital. But what Trump is doing now is beyond comprehension. From a third party perspective, Trump administration policies make it look like they imagine a feudal system built on top of America as the supreme state. They are destroying long term leadership and the trust the US has built. Some might call the Trump administration's actions 'unpretentious honesty.' But this is not honesty. It's just greed. The Trump administration seems to have created America's bankruptcy. In my view, Trump always wins. It's just not America's victory

james_marks

The final rebuttal to “the data doesn’t lie”: pull the sensors.

captainbland

From the playbook of COVID, it's not a problem if you just stop measuring.

janalsncm

The first thing you do when you want to improve a metric is to start measuring it. When you don’t care about that thing anymore you stop measuring it.

GreenSalem

Rogue nation. North Korea behaves better.

msie

This must be publicized as much as possible to shame Trump and Vought.