More than 200 climate and weather scientists from across the U.S. are taking part in a marathon livestream on YouTube, planning to share their scientific work and answer questions from viewers for a grand total of 100 hours over the course of five days. The event is non-partisan, and aims to prove the value of climate science in light of the Trump administration's funding cuts to organizations like NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The stream kicked off on Wednesday (May 28( at 1 pm ET (1700 GMT), starting with scientists documenting their last few hours at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) as the office was shuttered. It will run until 5:30 pm ET (2130 GMT) on Sunday (June 1), which marks the official start of hurricane season in the U.S.
Margaret Duffy, whose research focuses on atmospheric responses to global warming, first caught wind of the event in late April when Jonah Bloch-Johnson, a collaborator and fellow climate scientist, messaged her with a wild idea. "It was basically to do a marathon livestream," she told Space.com. "I think I responded within minutes." Now, Duffy is one of about a dozen organizers behind the stream.
"We just immediately started reaching out to every contact we knew," Marc Alessi, another livestream organizer and a fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Space.com. The team's efforts were successful. The marathon stream features mini-lectures, panels and question-and-answer sessions with hundreds of scientists, each speaking in their capacity as private citizens rather than on behalf of any institution. These include talks from former National Weather Service directors, Britney Schmidt, a groundbreaking glacier researcher, and legendary meteorologist John Morales. In its first 30 hours, the stream got over 77,000 views.
Ultimately, the goal of the event is to give members of the public the chance to learn more about meteorology and climate science in an informal setting — and for free. "We really felt like the American public deserves to know what we do," Duffy said.
However, many of the speakers and organizers also hope the transference of this knowledge will spur people to take action. The event's website features a link to 5 Calls, an organization that makes it easy for folks to contact their representatives in Congress about the importance of funding climate and weather research. The current administration has already gutted thousands of federal jobs and slashed millions of dollars in climate funding — and Congress is eyeing further cuts, which some experts fear will spell disaster. "There's a difference between pruning your flowers and taking a chainsaw and just cutting through the entire garden," meteorologist Alan Sealls said on the livestream.
The loss of federal funding for meteorology can (and likely will) have dire consequences. For example, many U.S. farmers rely on tools like the US Drought Monitor — a collaboration between NOAA, USDA and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln — to predict if and when their crops will get rain. Coastal communities rely on NOAA's hurricane forecasts to know whether to evacuate during a storm. And countless US citizens depend on predictions provided by the National Weather Service to help plan their daily lives.
In addition to short-term forecasting, the cuts could seriously damage global climate research. As the world warms, we are increasingly entering uncharted climate territory. The models developed by climatologists and other researchers will prove invaluable in helping humanity cope with dangers like sea level rise, extreme heatwaves and increasingly frequent tornadoes.
"These talks serve as a reminder of the fact that the American public has invested in weather and climate research for decades," said Alessi. "This is not something new."
The livestream is available to watch on YouTube. Full sessions from each day will be available on the Weather & Climate Livestream's channel archives while the event lasts, and shorter clips from individual lectures will be made available after June 1.
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