This Needs Fixin'

There’s a faction in U.S. politics that thinks the State shouldn’t be doing anything that someone could be making a profit from.

And they really hate NOAA.

NOAA is less than popular with the climate-change-is-a-hoax faction, too.

And since these factions are both part of Trump’s coup-alition, it’s not really surprising that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is taking a beating right now.

See, NOAA tracks weather all over the world and then just tells people about it; for free.

This makes them very unpopular with commercial weather forecasting companies (like, say, AccuWeather) who charge for their forecasts, and could charge much more if NOAA’s data weren’t just sitting around where anyone can get it for free.

NOAA also tracks changes in the climate, since understanding that is necessary to understanding and predicting the weather accurately.

So they’ve been a target for a while.

Never mind that commercial services all depend to some degree or other on NOAA’s data collection. Or that understanding how the climate is changing is vital to planning in lots of businesses and pretty much all governments.

Being rich doesn’t also mean you’re smart; often the opposite, in fact.

And NOAA isn’t a legally-mandated organization.

It was created by executive order, so even if the courts do eventually do something to stop the wholesale dismantling of the United States they’re unlikely to save NOAA.

So, take a few minutes to read through the Wikipedia page for NOAA and then take a few minutes to think about how a modern country is supposed to function without their work.

Cause it looks like we’ll have to.

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