The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
December 18, 2025

White House Says It's Breaking Up National Center for Atmospheric Research
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

White House budget director Russell Vought says the Trump administration
will break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder,
Colorado, known as NCAR. Vought announced the plan Wednesday on the
social media site X, calling it "one of the largest sources of climate
alarmism in the country." A follow-up White House statement accused NCAR
of wasting taxpayer funds on "woke" research and "green new scam
research activities."

Climate scientists and meteorologists reacted with alarm. Texas Tech
professor Katharine Hayhoe said, "NCAR supports the scientists who fly
into hurricanes, the meteorologists who develop new radar technology,
the physicists who envision and code new weather models, and yes - the
largest community climate model in the world." This is Daniel Swain, a
weather and climate scientist who studies extreme weather events as a
research partner at NCAR.

Daniel Swain: "This would be a terrible blow to American science writ
large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of
weather, wildfire and disaster research underpinning half a century of
progress in prediction, early warning and increased resilience."

On Wednesday, authorities evacuated the headquarters of the National
Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder due to an extreme wind storm
that created a critical wildfire risk. This follows weeks of near-record
high temperatures and almost no precipitation.


.