With mass firings of scientists at the federal level, including from NOAA and the National Weather Service, UCLA and UC ANR climate scientist Daniel Swain will discuss the threats to public safety in a live briefing late this afternoon.
He'll also review the latest updates related to the Los Angeles-area wildfires. Last week's rainstorm brought dangerous debris flows to burn areas. No lives were lost, thanks in part to preparation made possible by good forecasts — the same forecasts that Swain notes are now threatened by the "expanding chaos" in federal departments and agencies designed to protect the public from extreme weather.
YouTube Office Hours with Daniel Swain
Wednesday, Feb. 19, 4:00 p.m. PT/7:00 p.m. ET
Join live to ask questions in the chat or watch any time after the recording begins at the same link.
Get a preview of Swain's thoughts on the federal firings from his Feb. 7 discussion warning about the danger of anticipated cuts or from his recent thread online:
- "A majority of federal employees hired in past 1–2 years have apparently been (or will be shortly) fired. This alarming move will severely & immediately compromise public safety, from disruption of severe weather warnings to pandemic prevention to nuclear incident response."
- "There were — as recently as yesterday [Thursday] — assurances that public safety and basic government continuity would not be compromised. Clearly, this is not the case: critical roles are now suddenly unstaffed, and chaos and deep uncertainty is spreading among those who remain (for now)."
- "All of this this is in addition to massive cuts to scientific research that have been mandated in recent days. It's hard to see this as anything other than an intentional decimation of critical public safety services, and also of science in general, in the U.S."
