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U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

timescolonist.com

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Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#31

Post by rjrjrjrj »

arjie wrote: post #2

The scales of money at play always seem so strange. Oh a few hundred million for ocean sensors, or about what a few OpenAI / Cursor employees or a few hundred FAANG employees could personally fund if they desired to do so.

These sensors and a bunch of other scientific research for a thousand years, or pointless war with Iran for 3 months.

Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#32

Post by Jtsummers »

vel0city wrote: post #25
arjie wrote: post #2

The scales of money at play always seem so strange. Oh a few hundred million for ocean sensors, or about what a few OpenAI / Cursor employees or a few hundred FAANG employees could personally fund if they desired to do so.

Its not even about saving money. If they just wanted to save money they'd just stop paying attention to the data coming in, retask/lay off the people working on it, and let the buoys stay out there. A dumb idea to me, but at least that's consistent. Let other organizations decide to manage the buoys. While I'd prefer for the government to do it, it could be possible to have other groups fund such things. It would be…

This is the strangest part to me. They will spend millions and several years to dismantle a system that, realistically, could also just be abandoned. Not that we should leave more random, unused equipment out in the world, but if this were really about cost savings, and given this administration does not care at all about the environment, then leaving the equipment in place was the best option by their stated rationale.

Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#33

Post by verdverm »

markdown wrote: post #28
wxw wrote: post #3

> Starting this week, the Ocean Observatories Initiative will lose a network of more than 900 ocean sensors from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland. > By 2027, the National Science Foundation will have dismantled most of the system, which had been slated to run another 15 to 20 years. > Scientists had seen warning signs as the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget included a 55%…

Why not just sell them to some other country? Surely Canada would buy the in-place sensors and take them over.

They explicitly do not want them. They will pay companies to abandon renewable energy projects that have already planned / started.

Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#34

Post by francisofascii »

clintonb wrote: post #17
bbbrad wrote: post #4

Read the article, but I'm still not seeing why the U.S. is pulling these sensors. Anyone have any insight?

The current administration doesn’t care about climate change, or believes it’s a hoax. Given this, they see no need to fund research and data gathering that tells them otherwise.

That is a charatable interpretation. A more negative take is they are purposely suppressing the evidence.

Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#35

Post by skeledrew »

It's a leveled playing field now. No more pesky "I can provide data that shows..." to stand in the way of making things GREAT AGAIN. All arguments' strength rely on how much money is backing each, which is what makes all things GREAT. Facts are what those with power want it to be, not what some young upstarts claim from reading some machines. And that, again, is GREATNESS!!

Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#36

Post by curt15 »

vel0city wrote: post #25
arjie wrote: post #2

The scales of money at play always seem so strange. Oh a few hundred million for ocean sensors, or about what a few OpenAI / Cursor employees or a few hundred FAANG employees could personally fund if they desired to do so.

Its not even about saving money. If they just wanted to save money they'd just stop paying attention to the data coming in, retask/lay off the people working on it, and let the buoys stay out there. A dumb idea to me, but at least that's consistent. Let other organizations decide to manage the buoys. While I'd prefer for the government to do it, it could be possible to have other groups fund such things. It would be…

In what world is more spending for less data a good deal?

Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#37

Post by JohnMakin »

hydrolox wrote: post #9
bbbrad wrote: post #4

Read the article, but I'm still not seeing why the U.S. is pulling these sensors. Anyone have any insight?

do you expect there to be logic behind it?

I hope there isn't, because if there is, it has a lot of implications that are unpleasant to think about.

Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#38

Post by dwroberts »

arjie wrote: post #2

The scales of money at play always seem so strange. Oh a few hundred million for ocean sensors, or about what a few OpenAI / Cursor employees or a few hundred FAANG employees could personally fund if they desired to do so.

The US military budget is 900 billion dollars. The government can afford a few hundred million for some sensors, it should not need private sector patrons

Re: U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears

#40

Post by echelon »

dwroberts wrote: post #38
arjie wrote: post #2

The scales of money at play always seem so strange. Oh a few hundred million for ocean sensors, or about what a few OpenAI / Cursor employees or a few hundred FAANG employees could personally fund if they desired to do so.

The US military budget is 900 billion dollars. The government can afford a few hundred million for some sensors, it should not need private sector patrons

> The US military budget is 900 billion dollars.

And we're about to pay over a third of that to Iran?

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