The Day We Chose Ignorance: NOAA, Science, and the Price of Stupidity
Originally Published February 27, 2025
Updated on March 2, 2025
Background
880 staff at NOAA were fired on February 27, 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s effort to render key aspects of government agencies weak and broken to lay the ground work for privatizing critical services. It should be noted that the selling of state assets to wealthy individuals was one of the first things Vladimir Putin did when he became the leader of Russia. These individuals are what we hear referred to as the Oligarchs.
NOAA stands for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s America’s first science-centric federal agency.
I wish every American had a chance to tour NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. I wish they could sit down with the scientists, analysts, and policy experts who dedicate their lives to understanding the natural world, making sure our fisheries remain sustainable, our water stays safe, and our communities are prepared for the next hurricane, flood, or wildfire.
Because if they did — if they truly understood what this agency does — they’d be just as outraged as I am right now.
Instead, thanks to the anti-science, fact-averse wrecking ball of Trump, Elon Musk, and the Project 2025 zealots, we are watching a systematic dismantling of one of the most important federal agencies in the country. And it’s all happening under the false promise of “saving money.”
The truth? You’re about to pay a much higher price.
NOAA: The Agency That Keeps You Alive
NOAA isn’t some bloated, wasteful bureaucracy. It’s the backbone of our country’s ability to predict, prepare for, and mitigate environmental disasters.
Its models feed into every weather report, every hurricane warning, every sea-level rise projection that helps cities like Miami, New York, and Annapolis plan for the future. The data collected and analyzed by NOAA scientists ensure that when a town is told to evacuate before a storm, they’re not just running in fear — they’re running because the models say the water is going to rise and the roads will soon be impassable.
This isn’t abstract. It’s not political. It’s science.
And now, it’s under attack.
A War on Truth
The assault on NOAA isn’t new. We saw it during Trump’s first term with “Sharpiegate,” when the former president literally took a marker to a National Hurricane Center map and redrew a storm path to match his own fabricated prediction. When NOAA meteorologists in Alabama corrected him — because, you know, their job is to provide actual science-based forecasts — they were reprimanded.
The message was clear: Science doesn’t matter. Only loyalty does.
And now, with the same forces back in power, we’re seeing an all-out purge.
The experts who monitor climate change? Gone.
The scientists tracking invasive species in the Great Lakes? Fired.
The teams forecasting hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires? Disbanded.
Why? Because facts are inconvenient to people who want to shape the world according to their own fantasies.
The Cost of Ignorance
Let’s talk about what happens when you gut NOAA and the other agencies responding to seismic environmental shifts.
Imagine a group of fishermen near Lake Michigan, sitting in a diner, sipping coffee after a long morning on the water. One of them notices something:
“You ever notice the fishing’s been worse these last few years?”
“Yeah, and I caught a salmon the other day with a lamprey latched onto it. Haven’t seen that in a while.”
They’ll wonder what changed. They’ll blame the weather, bad luck, maybe even the government. But they won’t realize that the real reason their fishing has gone downhill is because the scientists who managed invasive species — the ones responsible for controlling lampreys, silver carp, and zebra mussels — were fired under the guise of “cutting waste.”
They’ll look around, trying to find someone who can explain it. But the experts are gone. Labeled as deep-state bureaucrats, they were pushed out by people who never understood their value in the first place.
The Future We’re Choosing
People think cutting government saves money. But how much money do you save when a town evacuates in time to avoid mass casualties from a hurricane? How much do you save when coastal cities use NOAA’s data to build infrastructure that won’t be underwater in 20 years?
We are not saving money. We are buying ignorance. And the cost will be measured in lives, livelihoods, and a country that no longer values expertise.
The dull have gotten duller. The scientists have left for countries where facts still matter. And we are left with a nation where the only thing rising faster than the tides is our collective stupidity.
Welcome to the future. You voted for it.
