With Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) shifting to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), prepare yourself for the doomcasting to shift in the form of new ways DOGE is going to get Americans killed.
As ABC and NBC began to allude to on Thursday night and Friday morning, it’s that weather forecasts will suddenly either become sparse or less accurate, leading to Americans dying having been aware of fires, floods, and tornadoes from NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS).
NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt only cracked the door open Thursday on NOAA and DOGE by noting just prior to another pity party for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers that “we have learned the government's climate and weather agency, NOAA, is laying off five percent of its staff.”
And, on Friday’s Today, NBC senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake was more pointed and invited viewers to expand their imagination during his segment about the Trump administration’s previous 24 hours:
The latest cuts at NOAA, which includes the National Weather Service and works on everything from forecasts and information for farmers to monitoring dangerous weather like wildfires and hurricanes. An administration official says the agency has laid off around 600 people while sparing staffers with “mission critical functions.”
And, over on ABC’s Good Morning America, senior political correspondent Rachel Scott cited the “hundreds let go” and played a clip of Congressman Ro Khana (D-CA) claiming cuts to NOAA will prevent Americans from being warned about...earthquakes (which is currently not possible to pinpoint):
These are the scientists who help figure out where the hurricanes are coming, how severe they're going to be, whether we're going to have an earthquake, whether we're going to have a wildfire.
The real kicker, though, was longtime Today weatherman Al Roker’s X posts going full Chicken Little.
“Going into the severe weather and hurricane season, this cannot be good. The Commerce Department has laid off hundreds of NOAA employees, many with specialized skills who work at one of the world's top climate science and weather forecasting agencies,” Roker began.
After pointing out NOAA is the agency behind “weather watches and warnings” and “operating weather satellites,” Roker lamented the layoffs came just says after NWS “issued warnings for deadly flooding in Kentucky, heavy snow, frigid temperatures and other hazards across the country.”
He used the rest of his first tweet and second one to come right out and strike fear:
While NOAA had pushed for public safety exemptions from the layoffs for NWS meteorologists, not all were granted. A congressional aide reported hearing that "some" at NWS were spared but "not many."
Folks, NOAA/NWS is more than just forecasts. It’s fire weather. It’s severe weather outlooks. It’s climate. It’s information that our FARMERS use day in and day out making us the breadbasket of the world. This agency monitors our oceans, our fisheries health. It touches our lives in ways you cannot even imagine. Everyone wants efficiency. No of us should want a NOAA/NWS that cannot fulfill it’s mission that makes us safer and protects us from what nature throws at us AND help us be better stewards of the environment
No time for nuance or waiting for more details. Time to panic!
Buckle up, folks. Be prepared for more of this over the weekend when it comes to DOGE coverage.
