Sign up to see the future, today<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech<\/p>\n
We watched in awe as four NASA astronauts crammed inside a small spacecraft traveled around the far side of the Moon before starting their five-day return journey this week, delivering spectacular images<\/a> of the \u201cblue marble\u201d we call our home and our closest celestial neighbor\u2019s cragged surface.<\/p>\n The images perfectly highlighted the frailty of our existence<\/a>: a tiny sliver of an atmosphere trapping a perfectly composited mixture of gases that allows life to flourish, making us possibly unique in the universe (at least as far as we know.)<\/p>\n And yet, despite an undeniable and worsening climate crisis<\/a>, the Trump administration has turned a blind eye<\/a> to environmental regulations and research, forcing out thousands of scientists and systematically dismantling atmospheric research institutions, as former NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies research scientist Kate Marvel detailed in a scorching new guest essay published by the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n In her essay, Marvel argued that the astronauts\u2019 \u201cpictures remind us that Earth has changed immensely since the last time astronauts went near the Moon in 1972.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo has NASA,\u201d she added. \u201cBudget cuts, chaos, and political interference now threaten the very science that motivates and enables space exploration.\u201d <\/p>\n A 2025 report by the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation concluded that the agency had been prematurely and illegally acting<\/a> on Trump\u2019s highly controversial 2026 budget proposal<\/a> for the space agency, well before Congress had a chance to sign off \u2014 which it never did. <\/p>\n In January, lawmakers decided NASA\u2019s budget would remain largely unchanged. Nonetheless, as budget cuts loomed and climate change denial surged<\/a>, over 10,000 doctoral-trained experts in science<\/a> left their jobs last year as part of an interagency, nationwide brain drain<\/a>.<\/p>\n Little has changed since then. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its proposed 2027 budget\u00a0for NASA last week, two days after the agency\u2019s Artemis 2 mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center, renewing its efforts to eviscerate its science directorate by proposing a reduction of its budget totaling a whopping 47 percent. The proposal appalled the science community and lawmakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Marvel says she has experienced the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cattacks\u201d on science first hand. Two weeks ago she left the agency, writing in a resignation letter<\/a> that she wanted to \u201ctell the truth\u201d and \u201cspeak publicly about everything I learn.\u201d<\/p>\n In her latest essay, Marvel argued that \u201ctracking the changes to Earth from space put me and my colleagues in the cross hairs of an administration particularly devoted to protecting the interests of the oil and gas industry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy this March, the chaos was a constant, and the attacks on our work were only intensifying,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI knew then that it was time to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Marvel also argued that environmental research has absolutely nothing to do with politics.<\/p>\n \u201cClimate science is not innately politically charged, whatever the administration says,\u201d she wrote. \u201cNo one I worked with had (or wanted) the power to make policy. It was our job to study the laws of physics, which remain true no matter who\u2019s in power.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the Trump administration has \u2014 unsuccessfully<\/a> \u2014 ordered the termination<\/a> of major climate change-focused satellite missions and even omitted any mentions of climate change<\/a> when releasing its latest annual report on global temperatures.<\/p>\n To Marvel, it\u2019s tantamount to self-sabotage by refusing to foster a deeper understanding of our planet and its climate.<\/p>\n \u201cNASA is still trying to conjure the notion of inspiration,\u201d she wrote in her essay. \u201cPerhaps if and when Artemis II returns safely to Earth, a generation of children will be inspired to see our world from above.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut for now,\u201d she added, \u201cNASA is throttling the scientific pipeline and diminishing our ability to see and understand our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWithout science, the stunning images of Earth from space are only pretty pictures,\u201d Marvel argued. \u201cWe all deserve so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n