"He had flown in from Mar-a-Lago and, he told me, was there to observe. The next day, he watched as Åsa Rennermalm, a Rutgers University professor who studies polar regions, sat onstage with European foreign ministers and spoke out against cuts to U.S. science funding. "A leading US Arctic scientist is on stage absolutely ripping her country to the delight of the audience," Dans wrote on X. "Embarassing." He punctuated his post with an American-flag emoji."
"When I asked him at the conference about his plans in his new job-the commission's main function is advising the federal government on what Arctic science to pursue-he said that future research will put America first and focus on the economic opportunities of the north. In a later email, he emphasized investments in Arctic military and energy security. "Under President Trump, our expansive Arctic research enterprise, across the entirety of the U.S. government enterprise, is increasing not decreasing," he wrote."
The newly appointed chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission attended a Tromsø conference and signaled an "America first" approach to Arctic research, emphasizing economic opportunities, military capability, and energy security. The administration is cutting or de-emphasizing climate-related science funding while framing an expanded geopolitical presence in the region. These funding choices have prompted many government and federally supported scientists to leave the Arctic and coincided with the sudden disappearance of thousands of federal datasets crucial to climate research. The combination of reduced scientific capacity and lost data undermines understanding of a region pivotal to global climate and security futures.
Read at The Atlantic
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