Kathleen Johnson

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It’s the “season of love and giving”…but this year, doesn’t it seem more like a “season of fear and taking”? Like many of you, I’ve been saddened by the human impact of draconian government budget cuts and how angry many housed Americans are at unhoused Americans.

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From @AGU.org: Senators are working on legislation to save NCAR, but we need extra support for these 8 states. Your Senators in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming need to hear from you.

49. Just when I thought the wonton destruction was slowing down a little. Russ Vought takes aim at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (est. 1960). (Dec. 16, 2025)

Quantifying changes in central Vietnam rainfall amount since the Late Pleistocene Paleorecords of the Southeast Asian autumn monsoon indicate that global sea-level change drove abrupt shifts in rainfall, yet the magnitude of these c…

🚨 New manuscript! 🚨

We use speleothem calcium isotopes and Mg/Ca to reconstruct rainfall amount. Turns out central Vietnam was 50 % drier during the LGM 🤯. Climate models agree but most underestimate rainfall change.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Subcommittee Markup of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

🧪 BREAKING (good news): Senate subcommittee says NO! to Trump's proposed slashes to NASA & NSF funding.

Today, the subcommittee said to keep NASA + NSF funding at $33.9 billion, the same as in FY24.

See 7:15 below. Full Senate appropriations committee meets tomorrow about it.

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As of today, all current NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellows have been furloughed due to the Dept of Commerce not releasing the funding for the program. In addition no new Fellows were awarded this year. cpaess.ucar.edu/cgc

A federal court granted a preliminary injunction late last night to stop the Trump administration from cutting grants to University of California researchers, giving an early win to a group of faculty trying a novel approach to protect government science investments. A group of six University of California faculty and staff sued a host of government agencies this month over the widespread elimination of research grants since Trump took office on Jan. 20. While there have already been several lawsuits challenging the abrupt grant cancellations, the University of California legal challenge seeks to become the first class action lawsuit to claw back money for all researchers within the 10-campus university system. Judge Rita F. Lin, a Biden appointee, gave provisional class certification to all University of California researchers who had their grants canceled by the Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation or National Endowment for the Humanities since Trump's inauguration without a specific explanation, or because they focused on a diversity or equity-related topic. She granted a preliminary injunction barring the agencies from terminating more grants to University of California researchers, and ordering the government to restore the funding until the court rules otherwise. University of California researchers notch win in novel suit against Trump, continued Lin ruled that the Trump administration's funding cancellations over diversity and equity topics violated the researchers’ First Amendment rights, and the way agencies carried them out were “arbitrary and capricious.” While the administration is entitled to promote its own chosen priorities, the executive branch “may not set out to suppress ideas it deems dangerous by trying to drive them out of the marketplace of ideas,” Lin wrote in her ruling.

NEW: A group of University of California researchers, seeking to become the first class action suit over Trump's science cuts, notch their first win with a preliminary injunction

www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

Y'all, this past week for science funding lawsuits has been 🔥🔥🔥

✅ Major recent wins regarding:

1. U of California researchers
2. NSF indirects
3. NIH terminations
4. EPA terminations

Plus:

5. Brand new NSF lawsuit (about terminations & slowdown of new awards)

🧵 Let's break it down

If this is how this administration responds to a Senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, to cooks, and to day laborers throughout California and across the country.

We will hold this administration accountable.

Newsflash: There is not a single American citizen who does not benefit in some way from the labor of undocumented people.

Period.

As someone who lives in Los Angeles, don’t let social or mainstream media gaslight you into thinking there’s a violent uprising taking place here. The Trump administration is trying to punish this state and this city. He’s also setting a precedent to unleash troops on Democratic cities.

Them: “LA is a full on insurrection”

Us at the protest:

BREAKING: Kamala Harris issues statement on Los Angeles.

Trump is such a small, selfish man. He would rather extract personal and political revenge on Californians because they didn’t vote for him than actually lead this nation.

This is blatantly illegal and California will absolutely block this action in court.

LA EMERGENCY PROTEST! 535 Alameda St, LA, CA 90012 Friday, June 6, 2025 4:30PM STOP DEPORTATIONS NOW! ICE HAS HUNDREDS OF MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY KIDNAPPED AND IS HOLDING THEM AT THIS LOCATION

Los Angeles EMERGENCY ICE protest TODAY at 4:30pm. Please show up, share with your friends/groups

Argh. The P4CLIMATE program solicitation will be archived (the program website itself hasn't been updated) www.nsf.gov/geo/updates/...

This is true across vast areas of STEMM.
To say that scientists are freaking out, depressed, upset, and afraid would be an understatement at this point.

The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies Tens of millions of dollars in NSF grants have been slashed, and scientists fear the US is about to lose a generation of climate researchers.

“The irony is that Trump is attacking the institutions and foundation of US science that literally made America great.”

Photo of the a large group of GISS employees/colleagues in front of Toms Restaurant with a prominent street sign saying "112th St" taken from the middle of Broadway. Credit: Tricia Baron.

Last day at the GISS building (Wed. May 28th). 🥲

Goodbye REUs, goodbye GRFPs, goodbye CAREERs (which ironically I just finished writing today). This is the end of the road for all early-career scientists. If you aren't enraged you aren't paying attention.

Make sure to catch the #SaveAmericasForecasts 💯 hour livestream! It's an inspiring collection of talks bringing attention to the need for federal funding for climate and weather research. For those of us in the field it's also comforting to hear familiar voices standing up in solidarity for science.

a man wearing a hat and an orange shirt says " get her jade " Alt: A man wearing a hat and an orange shirt says " get her jade "

🧪 YAASSSSS: 16 state AGs just sued NSF for its illegal changes in "agency priorities"

The broad scope would seem to not only address grant terminations...but also the underlying basis for closing programs, returning proposals without review, etc.

The filing: www.doj.state.or.us/wp-content/u...

Graphic for the Weather & Climate Livestream.

Federal weather & climate science is under threat. Starting TODAY at 3:00 PM ET, join a coalition of scientists--including AMS leaders--for a 100-hour livestream. Learn what federal science does for you, ask questions, and help build awareness to "Save Our Forecasts": wclivestream.com

We should have every member of the national academy release their own public statement on the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion in doing the best science.

DOGE claims NASA GISS is being evicted to save money, but it actually costs taxpayers more to remove us. GSA is on the hook for our lease until 2031, regardless of whether we occupy the building, and we all have to be "in person" by September. Any other place has a higher marginal cost than $0.

A chocolate cake with red and white decorations and lit candles shaped as the number 75. Bold text reads: ‘The NSF Turns 75 Today. What has it done over the past 7 decades?’ The background is a celebratory red with a spray-paint texture.

HAPPY 75th, NSF!

We’re celebrating this milestone by highlighting some of NSF’s most transformative accomplishments—innovations that have shaped our world and continue to drive progress in health, technology, the environment, and beyond.

Read on 🧵(1/11):

“This isn't about merit or budgets because NSF has a tiny imprint on the federal budget. This is all about controlling information and knowledge.”

A victory for the federal scientific workforce! We could not stand by while this irreparable harm continues at NSF, NOAA and all our scientific agencies.

TODAY the judge granted our request to temporarily HALT the mass firings at federal agencies under Trump’s Executive Order.

NSF-supported Unidata announced that almost their entire staff will be furloughed as of today. This is a huge threat to weather education and research at universities--Unidata provides crucial realtime data feeds of weather data, including satellite, radar, and observations.