NOTUS: USDA Moves to Shutter Maryland Research Facility. “The Agriculture Department announced plans Thursday to shut down a massive federal research complex in Prince George’s County, Maryland, over the objection of members of Congress. The department will begin decommissioning the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, a 6,500-acre federal research complex that has operated since 1910 and […]

The Hill: National Science Foundation’s future in limbo as Trump eyes cuts. “The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) future is in limbo as President Trump pushes for more budget cuts and his nominee to helm the research agency awaits Senate confirmation.”

"I think a lot of people around the country would find [it] a bit crazy, actually, that just as... people are really feeling the sharp end of climate change through these extreme events, there's been a bit of a walking back from investing in the science."

"We've lost about 700 people across the science system in the last couple of years in terms of cuts," she said.

"We're losing institutional knowledge, we're losing connectivity, we're losing networks of researchers... once it's gone, it takes years and decades to get it back."

Researchers were unlikely to come back into the system "because there's nothing to come back to".

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/592164/extreme-weather-scientists-warn-of-impending-funding-drought

#nzpol #climate #research #fundingcuts

R-Bloggers: EM-DAT, the world’s disaster memory, is at risk. “EM-DAT, the Emergency Events Database, is the world’s most widely used and trusted global database for tracking natural and technological disasters…. For more than 25 years, EM-DAT was primarily funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Following the recent dismantling of USAID, that funding is […]