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

timescolonist.com

41–50 of 299 posts

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

#41
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.

It’s nothing to do with money, that’s always the libertarian excuse, and HN laps it up far more than the rest of the word.

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

#42
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.

You think this is done to save costs? NO! This is costing more money to actively dismantle them than it would be to just abandon them. The administration is intentionally and specifically trying to destroy scientific evidence of climate change. If they just abandoned them, the next administration could reactivate and repair them.

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

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rationa…

If they just abandon them then a subsequent administration can simply re-activate them without being forced to spend even more money.

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

#45
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…

It's also (according to some in Congress) an illegal action as Congress authorized and funded the project:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/lawmakers-fight-to-stop...

But that just seems like par for the course for the current administration, whether it's tariffs or ballrooms or ocean sensors - do the illegal thing ASAP, let the courts argue for months or years, and maaaaaybe get a slap on the wrist sometime way in the future.

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

#46
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Is it actually coming out of the military budget? I assumed we were just going to get taxed for it, or they'd pull it from some other places that actually needs the funds.

Alternatively, they could just increase the military budget by 300 billion (or more).

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

#47
Perhaps EU or China could build their own network of sensors to track this stuff? It's dangerous for so much science to be dependent on a country run by anti-science idiots.

I sincerely hope that China wins the AI race, for the sake of myself and my children. The Chinese Communist party might be evil, but at least they accept fundamental natural sciences, and are actively investing in technologies that help avoiding worst climate scenarios. Buying anything American instead of EU or Chinese alternatives has become deeply unethical to me.

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

#48
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.

The new budget proposal is $1.5T

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

#49
post #4

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

Because they're Woke sensors that are collecting woke lies about the Chinese Climate Change Hoax of course.

Also Accuweather paid a lot of money for this president and they are very interested in not having the US government compete against them with free, high-quality weather forecasting.

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

#50
post #15
post #4

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

[flagged]

For simple minded people like Trump and his followers yes. For the ones pulling his strings they have motives and reasons beyond the idiots they put in as a figurehead.
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