Fascist Emergency-Making Administration

PRESENTED BY THE MAJESTIC DUDDON, OVER SMOOTH FLAT SANDS

On Wednesday, acting Federal Emergency Management Administration head Cam Hamilton testified before Congress that he did “not believe it is in the best interest the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” despite Trump’s stated desire to kill off FEMA.

So the next day, Hamilton was fired, escorted out of FEMA headquarters, and replaced with an even less qualified Trump yes-man, David “Vigo” Richardson. A former Marine and military contractor who served in the first Trump regime, Richardson lacks a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management, despite the statutory requirement that the FEMA Administrator have a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management.

But he does have the key qualification of being a complete asshole. In a “bizarre” meeting with staff on Friday, Richardson said, “I, and I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA.” He went on:

Will be fun watching him trying to bully a hurricane into turning around.

On Bluesky, climate scientist Bob Kopp compiled a list of some of the Trump coup’s illegal attacks on climate science:

1. February 10: Cancellation of U.S. support for the IPCC Working Group 3 [Mitigation] Technical Support Unit

2. March: Cancellation of dozens of USAID climate and renewable energy contracts

3. March: USGS Water Science Centers slated for closure

4. March 2: Cancellation of the Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative

5. April 8: Cancellation of $4 million of NOAA cooperative agreement funding for Princeton for promoting “exaggerated and implausible climate threats” and “climate anxiety”

6. April 9: Cancellation of the contract for the support staff for the US Global Change Research Program and National Climate Assessment

7. April 24: Dismantling of State Department Office of Global Change

8. April 24: Announcement of eviction of NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies

9. April 28: Dismissal of federal staff of the USGCRP and the authors of the National Climate Assessment

10. May: Months of layoffs leave dozens of National Weather Service stations without a meteorologist-in-charge

11. May: Months of layoffs eliminate one-third of Energy Information Administration staff

12. May 2: White House releases budget which aggressively slashes climate science and renewable energy funding, calling it the “Green New Scam”

13. May 2: Dismantling of EPA Office of Research and Development

14. May 5: Dismantling of EPA’s Energy Star program

15. May 5: OIRA declares the cost of climate pollution to society is zero

16. May 6: Discontinuation of NOAA NCEI snow and ice data products

17. May 7: DOGE announces imminent layoffs of thousands of Interior staff in May, including elimination of Climate Adaptation Science Centers

18. May 8: Discontinuation of the NOAA Billion-Dollar Disaster data set

19. May 9: NOAA furloughs NSF Unidata program

Thanks to the American Geophysical Union for fighting back—and winning.

Help the Computing Research Association to tell Congress to save the National Science Foundation.

What are we missing? Put it in the comments!

Everywhere in America, people dedicated to service, to nurturing their community and caring for the planet have been DOGEd. Jillian Magtoto tells the story of how the annihilation of AmeriCorps is killing California conservation efforts, one unplanted white oak at a time.

The Texas Senate passed a bill requiring solar plants to provide power at night.

Ezra Klein’s got it wrong—Colorado’s housing “abundance” efforts are backed by environmental groups and nixed by Republicans and business.

Ancient poems record the decline of a special porpoise.

Warren Buffett’s successor Greg Abel got his start selling clean energy. Now he defends coal.

Pope Francis’s successor Pope Leo XIV got his start ministering to the poor in Peru. Now he defends the earth.

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.