Peter GleickMar 3, 2025

Incredible statement from the American Meteorological Organization. It takes a lot for a scientific organization to issue a statement like this:

"U.S. leadership in scientific innovation is at risk due to the recent and ongoing reductions in U.S. federal science capabilities. The consequences to the American people will be large and wide-ranging, including increased vulnerability to hazardous weather...Recent terminations within the government workforce for science are likely to cause irreparable harm and have far-reaching consequences for public safety, economic well-being, and the United States’ global leadership."

Full statement here: https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/about-ams/ams-statements/statements-of-the-ams-in-force/the-u-s-weather-enterprise-a-national-treasure-at-risk/?_zs=m2nfc1&_zl=iOL6A

Show threadCluster FckuMar 3, 2025
@petergleick I'd like to highlight another point in the linked article, which is that private profit oriented companies benefit from reliable science and data when it is acquired without a profit motive. Much of today's technology entrepreneurs believe the same quality can be achieved when the science is performed under a profit motive, their profit. Until it is relentlessly communicated otherwise, the entrepreneurs will continue under such hubris, disasters and burst bubbles be damned.
Show threadRRBMar 3, 2025
@clusterfcku @petergleick The only private companies that matter now are the ones that pay tribute to Cheeto Benito.
Show threadCluster Fcku
@rrb @petergleick yes and this is the issue of course. The profit motive of blessed corps will determine what the science will say. This is a filthy viral infection that affects health, public safety, consumer safety and so on. The end of "disinterested science", with effects accruing as future technological debt.
Mar 3, 2025 at 7:55pmWeb
Show threadRRBMar 4, 2025

@clusterfcku @petergleick I often have the same concern about art. Where the best art, Kafka, Genet, was done in private with no thought of sharing with the public.

I wonder how long it will take for market purists to insist on replacing marriage with prostitution.Musk and Trump see it as the same thing.