The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today delivered an open letter to leaders of Congress and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, signed by more than 2,500 scientists and other experts, urging them to ensure the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) remains fully funded and staffed and that its independent and trusted science is protected.
NOAA is one of several U.S. federal government agencies that has faced threats of budget cuts and staff layoffs under the Trump administration, as well as potential concerns about undermining agency science. The Project 2025 plan guiding the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s “DOGE” calls for dismantling NOAA and commercializing its forecasting work. Commerce Secretary Lutnick—who oversees NOAA—promised not to break up the agency during his confirmation hearings.
Created 55 years ago by President Nixon and a bipartisan act of Congress, NOAA is one of the nation’s premier science agencies and the primary provider of free and widely used weather forecasts, including for hurricanes, heatwaves and drought. This vital information is used by emergency responders, policymakers, the private sector, and the public to help prepare and protect communities, critical infrastructure, and commerce. Everyone relies on NOAA data in their daily lives whether they realize it or not.
“NOAA is the linchpin in global weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and climate research,” the letter states. “NOAA staff work collaboratively with scientists around the world, to the benefit of people in the United States and of every other nation.”
“Undermining the ability of scientists at NOAA to produce independent, world-class science will lead to devastating impacts on the United States and global climate and weather research community. These kinds of harms to NOAA would affect people around the world who depend on this life-saving information.”
“Without a strong NOAA, a cornerstone of the U.S. scientific research enterprise, the world will be flying blind into the growing perils of global climate change,” the letter continues.
“The harmful impacts of human-induced increases in heat-trapping emissions are readily apparent in accelerating sea level rise, worsening heat waves and flooding, longer and more intense wildfire seasons, altered rainfall patterns, the retreat of Arctic Sea ice, ocean acidification, and many other aspects of the climate system that are currently monitored by NOAA.”
Letter signatories also urged congressional leaders and the Trump administration to keep NOAA data freely accessible to the public.
The letter concludes by stating: “A world without NOAA and other leading U.S. science institutions would not only upend decades of invaluable scientific research, it would also signify an abdication of U.S. leadership in climate science, and an erosion of U.S. status as a scientific powerhouse.”
The following experts who signed the letter are available to discuss the significant role NOAA plays in the scientific community and for the public:
- Dr. Marc Alessi, a UCS fellow focusing on climate attribution science
- Dr. Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, Australia
- Dr. Rachel Cleetus, the policy director for the UCS Climate and Energy Program
- Dr. Kerry Emanuel, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializing in tropical meteorology
- Dr. Veronika Eyring, professor and chair of climate modeling at the University of Bremen, Germany
- Dr. Joyce Kimutai, climate attribution scientist at the Grantham Institute of Imperial College London, UK; climate scientist for the Kenya Meteorological Department, Kenya
- Dr. Natalie Mahowald, atmospheric scientist
- Dr. Ben Santer, climate attribution scientist