1. United States
2. S.C.
3. Letter

The Trump administration is dismantling a $368 million deep-ocean monitoring system known as the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The National Science Foundation (NSF) is sending ships to remove over 900 deep-sea sensors and buoys in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The impacted system is a vast, interconnected network of floating buoys, seafloor instruments, and autonomous gliders. These tools have been operating for about a decade to collect real-time, continuous data on climate and weather, ocean temperature, salinity, and greenhouse gas absorption. Researchers and climate scientists have criticized the decision, stating it eliminates critical "checkups" on planetary health during a period of record sea temperatures and rising sea levels. This is unacceptable. Taxpayers money went to fund this critical infrastructure, and Teump is dismantling it because he doesn't like what the science says about climate change. Stop this now!