🌎 Trump is dismantling the entire (900 instrument) O. O. I. Ocean Monitoring System

[underpants]

The Trump administration is dismantling the $368 million Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a critical network monitoring marine ecosystems and climate change. Starting in June 2026, the National Science Foundation will begin removing over 900 deep-sea instruments across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Dismay as Trump officials to dismantle key ocean monitoring system
Ocean Observatories Initiative, $368m network that has provided crucial climate data, latest victim of Trump cuts

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/02/trump-administration-ocean-observatories-initiative

The notice, issued on 21 May, came just days after Trump fired all members of the independent board that oversees the NSF. It outlined plans to remove all in-water infrastructure from observation sites off the coasts of North Carolina, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, as well as from the Irminger Sea, a marginal sea between Greenland and Iceland


Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said on X: “Fossil fuel is heating our oceans by the zettajoule, so Trump’s corrupt fossil fuel stooges want to turn off the monitors.”

“One of the real powers of this OOI and a lot of the collection of autonomous data is that scientists like me don’t have to have the expertise or the resources to be able to deploy this kind of infrastructure ourselves,” Palevsky (professor focusing on marine biogeochemistry and oceanography at Boston College) said. “Being able to have instruments, both actually out in the atmosphere floating in the surface ocean, as well as surviving through the really deep mixing and waves in the subsurface.”

Palevsky also warned that rebuilding such a network in the future would be difficult, saying: “If we want to put [the instruments] back out again, we need people who know how to do it and the team that knows how to do it is being dismantled along with the infrastructure program itself.

[yellow dahlia]

1. This is one of the (many) stories that has me apoplectic.

[The Blue Flower]

2. Me too

For one thing, hurricane season has just begun. All they know is destruction.

[2naSalit]

7. It's also...

All they seem to want.

[LisaL]

13. And a lot of red states are in the bulls eye.

MAGATs can thank their hero for not knowing where it's going.

[yellow dahlia]

24. The destruction is the point.

[-misanthroptimist]

3. Well, we can't let little things like physics...

...or the law get in the way of profit, can we? That's socialism!!

[underpants]

5. No of course not. Like US AID this ends this forever

As the article in this states, you just simply can’t recreate it.

So tragic.

[-misanthroptimist]

8. I think it can be recreated.

We haven't lost the technology, and there are enough smart people in the world who can redesign and rebuilt -probably better than it was. But it almost certainly won't be within the near future.

It's interesting that the Federal Budget seems to have become a slush fund which the President moves around at his whim. I can't find that in the Constitution anywhere.

[underpants]

9. Yeah they could recreate 5 of these with that money.

Crazy

[Horse with no Name]

4. Why is he allowed to do this?

Why don’t we have restraining orders on everything he does to waste taxpayer money?

[yellow dahlia]

26. This is the question!!!

I keep saying - somebody do something.

[slightlv]

29. Restraining order on his wasteful spending?! Ha! How would he make his m/billions off the presidency then?

Must mean he's running out of liquid taxpayer dollars. He has to kill more departments and appropriate that money for both his vanity projects and his overseas bank accounts!

[Pisces]

6. This is insane! How is there no mechanism to stop this waste of money. They are scheduled for 10 more years!

Why can’t one of these billionaires take over, or another country? Dismantling??? This makes no sense. Where is Richard Branson et.al??

This can not be allowed! Anyone wealthy enough who loves the environment should be able to take the whole thing over. The Jacques Cousteau organization???

This guy want to destroy everything.

[underpants]

11. That's exactly how I feel. I just wanted to make people aware of it.

I saw it on Twitter and thought “No way. That’s nuts”. Sadly, yes way and it’s still nuts.

[Pisces]

14. Congress should be able to stop some of this, that is if we had a functioning Congress!! We must win

the midterms to get some control over this nonsense!!

[Turbineguy]

10. Do harm every day.

[LisaL]

12. Well, when the hurricanes hit, MAGATs can thank their hero

for not knowing where it's going.

[Pisces]

15. Florida, where so many MAGATs live can thank Trump

[LisaL]

16. Texas, too.

A lot of hurricanes hit Texas.

[NBachers]

22. It'll all be Biden's fault.

[Kid Berwyn]

17. "... Trump's corrupt fossil fuel stooges want to turn off the monitors."I

IMFO: Sheldon Whitehouse belongs in the White House as POTUS.

[yellow dahlia]

27. Whitehouse for the White House has a ring to it.

Last edited Wed Jun 3, 2026, 06:13 PM - Edit history (1)

He would certainly be able to do an excellent job - he has the chops.

I don't know that he wants it.

And ironically he would be accused of having baggage because of the exclusive club he belongs to. I think just because it is comprised of many white people does not paint it as a racially exclusive club, per se. Maybe no black folks have applied...maybe none want to belong.

[marybourg]

36. Gee, when have I heard that before?

And from whom?

[yellow dahlia]

37. And I almost forgot, the other baggage the Repugs really like to harp about.

Senator Whitehouse's wife is employed in the climate "industry". The Repugs imagine some kind of conflict of interest- also ironic. They make a big deal that she makes over 200,000 - again ironic.

[Tracyjo]

18. Jesus Christ

Just leave everything in place and tell trump it's gone. He'll never know the difference.

[underpants]

19. 😂👍

[Bayard]

34. Somebody has to be shoving these cuts in front of him,

On subjects he has no clue even exist. Since Musk is gone, I'm still thinking Miller.

[underpants]

35. The oil industry has probably been salivating on this for years.

You’re right. He’s an idiot and is easily coerced.

[Bayard]

38. Just show him a shiny object....

[maxsolomon]

20. This dismantling isn't something the next Dem Administration can just reverse.

Which is exactly why they're doing it.

Trash the place. Make it unusable.

[BeneteauBum]

21. Make more funds available for his pocket

We all know tRump is going to squeeze until he can’t squeeze anymore. Some of this funding will end up in one of his accounts. Enrich himself and screw the rest of us.

Peace ☮️

[Coventina]

23. I want hurricanes to obliterate Florida. N/t

[OMGWTF]

25. Like shutting down Covid-19 testing so the numbers look better than they actually are.

Fuck T💩p and anyone who still supports this GD terrorist and his gang.

[scipan]

28. Somebody sue please. PLEASE

[lapfog_1]

30. I spent years of my life at NASA

collecting data like this... mostly from satellites ( ocean surface temps, ice data, land vegetation data, ocean data from instruments like these collected via satellites, ship reports, etc ).

This was all part of the overall MTPE ( Mission To Planet Earth ) and the EOS ( Earth Observation System ). Specifically, EOSDIS was "my baby".

Was a back bencher to Al Gore when he would chair the meetings ( back bencher to my center director ).

10 years worth of climate data... I believe they have scrubbed it all... and this is part of now dismantling the data instruments.

I hate these people with the heat of a thousand suns.

Ignoring the data will not change anything. The planet is still warming. Humans are the cause.

[underpants]

32. Thank you for your work. It's just such a shame.

[LoisB]

31. We're being governed by a cabal of "no nothings''. I dare any "journalist" to ask

IT or his minions the purpose of these monitors.

[pansypoo53219]

33. injuct it now, cause this will be stoped.

i aint a lawyer.