Trump Administration Plans to Dismantle Key Climate Research Center

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The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a pivotal institution in climate study situated in Boulder, Colorado, is facing potential disbandment under the directive of President Donald Trump’s administration. This center is vital for both U.S. and global climate research, particularly through its modeling and Earth observation capabilities.

Russell Vought, Trump’s budget director, remarked on social media platform X, “This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” following the announcement. The White House echoed similar sentiments, labeling NCAR as “the premier research stronghold for left-wing climate lunacy,” according to a report by USA Today.

The administration has indicated that the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCAR’s primary funder, plans to dismantle the center to cease research connected to the Green New Deal. Essential functions, such as weather modeling and supercomputing, may be transferred elsewhere.

Consortium president Antonio Busalacchi confirmed to Nature that NCAR received a letter of intent from the NSF about the center’s possible breakup. This letter sought information on divesting, transferring, or restructuring NCAR’s components, such as its research aircraft fleet and supercomputing center in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “Morale is terrible,” Busalacchi commented.

Actions against this decision are already brewing in Congress. Representative Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Boulder, stated, “We will fight this reckless directive with every legal tool we have.” Congress, which oversees the federal budget, holds the power to fund NCAR.

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), a non-profit consortium of over 130 colleges and universities, manages NCAR for the NSF. The latest agreement, signed in 2023, allocates $938 million to operate NCAR for five years. Terminating this funding would significantly impact NCAR’s budget, which also receives money from various federal and non-federal sources.

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The potential closure of NCAR has sparked a #SaveNCAR campaign within the scientific community on social media. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, emphasized the center’s importance by stating, “Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.” She further described it as the “global mothership” of atmospheric science.

Dawn Wright, an oceanographer with Esri, criticized the proposal as another damaging blow to American science. “If the NSF does follow through with these plans to break up NCAR, that’s just going to decimate a huge chunk of the US climate research that we all depend on,” she noted.

Established by the NSF in 1960, NCAR supports atmospheric science research requiring resources beyond what individual institutions can provide. A former NSF researcher, who wished to remain anonymous, warned, “If you cancel this, you will devastate atmospheric science.”

NCAR has been instrumental in advancing weather and climate forecasting. One of its significant contributions is the development of the dropwindsonde, a weather instrument that measures atmospheric conditions during a storm. James Franklin, a former chief at the US National Hurricane Center, highlighted its role in transforming hurricane science.