World renowned GISS lab lost its home in NY. Just how dire is the situation in the United States, where climate research has been gutted across the board. [Links to Part 1 and 2 at bottom] WATCH Silencing Science: Trump's War on Our Climate June 20 2025 ClimateAdam channel report- readable transcript follows
[KE: This report is from June. Things have only gotten worse since then, but it is hard to find info for this venue, using YouTube videos about what USA is doing now. I'll keep digging.]
TRANSCRIPT: We are at a pivotal moment for our planet – for ourselves. We are rapidly approaching the limits we've set to keep ourselves safe, and we're already feeling the consequences of inaction. But at this decisive moment, when we're already falling way behind, we're seeing the Trump administration attacking and dismantling the very systems that are there to protect us – now and in the future.
These are tools and data and people that we need to keep each other safe. So just how deep do the cuts go? What are the consequences in the United States and beyond? And what can we do to try to safeguard this climate in which we live? We're talking about a generational loss here.
The kind of destruction that they're doing is going to have implications for years to come. I'm Adam, a climate scientist with a PhD from Oxford, sharing what you need to know about climate change. And today, I want to talk with you about just how dire the situation for climate research is in the United States of America. And while I've definitely used U.S. climate research, I am not an American climate researcher. And so for today's video, I spoke with three incredible experts who are feeling the impacts firsthand.
[Transcripts are here st Heating Planet blog for readers writers and researchers. Plus, video can disappear. The printed word is forever.]
Let's kick things off with my friend Miriam Nielsen. She's doing a PhD at NASA GISS and Columbia, where she's been researching drought and extreme rain….
So Miriam is currently at the point where she's meant to be wrapping up her research in order to become Dr. Miriam Nielsen.
M: What I want to be doing is just kind of staring at my computer, staring at results. But I, at least for the last few weeks, haven't done that at all.
This is because Miriam's office is– was– at NASA Giss’ offices. Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New Hork. GISS works to monitor and understand the different processes affecting our climate. Vital research that's used by climate scientists across the world. But here's the thing...
M: We were no longer allowed to use our office space. We're effectively getting evicted. For a while, everyone was saying this was a lease cancellation, but turns out they actually can't cancel our lease- we just re-signed it. The building is just going to be empty. It's going to limit collaboration. It's going to make it more difficult for people to work.
I: And this isn't just about this world renowned lab losing its home. Since Miriam and I spoke, there's talk about scrapping it entirely. And climate research is getting gutted across the board. For PhD students wrapping up their research projects like Miriam the natural question is What's next? But the answer to that question is now deeply uncertain.
M: I think if you'd asked me in my fourth year of the program what I wanted to do afterward, I would have said, well, yeah, I just didn't want to do a postdoc. But then, as all the grants started getting shuttered like one of the premier climate science grants I know, none of us are sure if it'll ever happen again. I'm seeing people that I was interested in working with who had announced postdoc positions quietly pull them back because they've lost their NSF career grants or the money that they thought they were going to have, they can't access anymore.
I: Look, I can say from personal experience that finishing up a PhD is an incredibly stressful time. You've got to think about pulling everything you've been researching together, while also trying to figure out what comes next in your career. In other words, you're grappling with big intellectual and big personal questions. But for climate researchers in the US right now, like Miriam, that's a whole other dimension to it. I mean...
M: It's a real bummer, which is not, you know, the most eloquent thing to say. I'm worried that my advisors will still have jobs when I defend. I mean, there's impacts on my mental health. That's like, without question, I am not sleeping very well. I'm stressed out. I'm a little anxious, nervous, ball.
I: And frankly, it's really rough to hear just what an impact this is having on an old friend of mine. But the thing is, Miriam’s experiences aren't unique. The attacks at NASA GISS are part of a much wider assault on climate Silenced Report research.
One organization raising the alarm is the Union of Concerned Scientists. The Union of Concerned Scientists is a science based advocacy organization.
This is Rachel Cleetus. She's policy director for the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. This year, she's been working on the sixth National Climate Assessment, a report mandated by US Congress to give decision makers the climate info they need. At least Rachel was meant to be working on this report.
RC: So all of us volunteers were sent an email saying that our services were no longer required. It was so disappointing. Kind of heartbreaking.
I: This report doesn't dictate policy- it simply provides information. And Rachel and her collaborators were working on it on a voluntary basis, so they weren't being paid. So what possible reason, what possible benefit can justify scrapping it? There's the reason the administration gives, which is no reason. It's so clear they're beholden to fossil fuel interests that are driving climate change, reaping huge profits even as the planet is burning.
And they want to bury the science. To my mind, this is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime. They want to replace facts with propaganda. It's not just one PhD student. It's not just one report. This is part of a concerted effort to steer the US away from understanding and acting on climate change. Trump has attacked research at the Environmental Protection Agency. Hundreds of workers of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA have been laid off. Mentions of climate have been scrubbed from official websites.
And this is all part of a broader assault on scientific research. I mean, honestly, in the time between me filming and publishing this video, there’ll probably be a dozen new attacks on climate and science in the United States.
All around us, we're watching scientists being fired, intimidated. We're watching science funding crumble. You know, it's all being attacked across the board. And so this is part of that broader attack on science from the Trump administration.
If you're like me, then you live on this planet, which means this matters for you. These cuts to research are putting us in direct danger. They limit our ability to understand what's happening to our climate and predict what we're in for tomorrow. And attacks on agencies like NOAA have consequences right now– especially as we're seeing climate change dial up extreme weather disasters, from hurricanes to heatwaves.
In real time, our weather forecasting is being degraded.
If we don't have good forecasts, lives are at stake. They're also really from the highest levels of the government spreading disinformation and lies about science. It's just self-harm. And it's it's it's infuriating. And maybe you're outside the United States and all this seems very far away. But the thing is, climate and weather data gathered by the United States is used all around the world.
And that brings us to Gavin Schmidt. He's the director of NASA GISS, which is where Miriam is doing her PhD and which has been kicked out of its offices.
GS: You only need to look out of the window to understand how complicated the climate system is. NASA has satellites and sensors measuring stuff. It needs people to work through it to extract
I: The most incredible climate research and weather forecasting the world over, but it's hard to overstate just how big a part US science plays and how big a threat these attacks pose.
GS: In the US, [there is] by far the most effective and most successful, scientific research capability that has ever existed. You might think, oh, well, everybody will just move or, you know... There's not really enough room anywhere else.
I: And this isn’t something that can just get magically fixed by the next administration. After all, it is far easier to break than it is to rebuild.
GS: The scientific enterprise in the US, the soft money research enterprise, the NIH, the NSF, all of these things have been built up, really since the Second World War. And it's taken about 70 years to build up to where we were.
I: 70 years to build. And here we are, just half a year into Trump's second term. And across the world, we're already feeling the consequences.
RC: You know, when I was in India earlier this year, there were news reports in the paper talking about monsoon forecasts being degraded because they wouldn't have access to NOAA data. So real concerns about that.
I: This is a lot to take in. I know these attacks on climate research are adding to the sense of helplessness that so many of us are feeling right now, as we doomscroll through images of genocide, environmental disasters, attacks on the most vulnerable.
But while these times Despair are definitely overwhelming, that doesn't mean we're helpless.
R: You can't give up. The stakes are too high. We're in the fight of our lives right now, and it's really important to stay engaged and not tune out.
I: Rachel argues that scientists need to raise their voices and make the case Action into Hope for why research is so crucial to our lives. And that the rest of us need to spell out for policymakers how these cuts hurt us our abilities to work, our abilities to live, to be safe. And this holds for those of us outside the US, too, as we can see far right politicians across the globe attempting to gut research and deny climate science. For Miriam, it's vital we stay in the loop that we stay tuned in despite the onslaught of bad news.
M: A lot of this is designed to skirt under the radar. A lot of this is happening in the sort of like Friday evening news dumps. Paying attention to what you have the ability to pay attention to is useful. [overlapping\ Yeah, for sure. And, you know, like, sharing YouTube videos.
And, look, now’s the point where I share the silver lining, that shiny thing that offsets all the depressing. Well, frankly, that's not how this works. The silver lining is us. People have created this problem so people can solve it. Not the same people, different people! Humanity has two choices.
We can either hunker down and create a fortress world of privilege, where some people are safe and everybody else is on the outside. Or we can create a world that's more connected where we are in community as we face adversity. Otherwise we're not going to get on the other side of it. And in fact, there are people getting to work right now from the local level, right up to the international stage, to do what they can to resist Trump's attacks on our climate. So if you're looking for inspiration, you'll want to check out my video from a couple of months ago over here. Okay, until next time, bye!
ClimateAdam channel- Hey there! I'm Adam, a climate scientist with a PhD from Oxford, sharing what you need to know about climate change!
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UK progresses as USA regresses:
Part 1
4c above pre-industrial level by 2100 possible. UK sets out to adapt- Read and watch Daily Record Oct 15 report, Heating Planet blog
The UK must be able to handle at least 2c of global warming by 2050, climate advisors told the government this week. UK has not adapted to
Part 2
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