The Trump administration plans to break up Colorado’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, the largest federal climate research lab.
Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, announced the plan Tuesday in a statement on X.
“The National Science Foundation will be breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado,” Vought wrote, linking to a story from USA Today, which was first to report on the administration’s effort. “This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country. A comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.”
The move would be a major setback for climate research in the United States, at a moment when the United Nations and other world leaders have said time is running out to prevent the most devastating effects of global warming.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, NCAR’s parent organization, said in a statement Tuesday that it was aware of reports on a plan to shut down the center but did not have any information about it.
“We look forward to working with the administration to continue our focus on safeguarding the safety and prosperity of our nation,” Antonio Busalacchi, president of UCAR, said in the statement.
In response to NBC News’ inquiry about the plan for NCAR, a senior White House official took aim at Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat.
“Maybe if Colorado had a governor who actually wanted to work with President Trump, his constituents would be better served,” the official said.
The official described NCAR as “the premier research stronghold for left-wing climate lunacy” and said that breaking it up would “eliminate Green New Scam research activities.”
Polis said in a statement Tuesday that Colorado has not received information from the administration about a plan to dismantle NCAR but that, if true, it would amount to an attack on science.
“Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science,” Polis said. “NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families. If these cuts move forward we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery.”
The announcement about NCAR is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to curtail climate research and cancel clean energy projects. President Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and “a con job,” ignoring scientists' widespread consensus about the Earth's clear and continued warming trajectory.
The 10 hottest years since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last year was the planet’s hottest on record, eclipsing the previous record set in 2023.
Many in the climate and weather community reacted with shock to the NCAR announcement.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on X that it would be a “terrible blow to American science, writ large.”
“It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, & disaster research underpinning half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, & increased resilience,” Swain said, adding that the reverberations would extend throughout the global weather and climate community.
“NCAR has played a greater cumulative role in advancing weather prediction & atmospheric modeling than perhaps any other single entity in the world,” he said.
Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy, said dismantling NCAR would be “like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.”
“Nearly everyone who researches climate and weather — not only in the US, but around the world — has passed through its doors and benefited from its incredible resources,” she wrote on X.
Andy Hazelton, an associate scientist at the University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, called the move “extremely short-sighted.”
Some Democrats have vowed to fight NCAR’s closure.
“A deeply dangerous & blatantly retaliatory action by the Trump administration,” Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., whose district includes the climate research facility, wrote on X. “NCAR is one of the most renowned scientific facilities in the WORLD — where scientists perform cutting-edge research everyday. We will fight this reckless directive with every legal tool we have.”
NCAR was established by the National Science Foundation in 1960 to study Earth’s atmosphere and its interactions with oceans, land surfaces and the sun. The center has provided critical research on long-term atmospheric changes, global warming, air pollution, wildfires, extreme weather and geomagnetic storms.
NCAR researchers have played pivotal roles in improving weather forecasts, air quality predictions, and models of wildfire behavior, flooding and drought risk.
In 1990, NCAR scientists contributed to the landmark first assessment from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which described the urgent need to cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit warming to stave off the most devastating consequences of global warming. The IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize together with former Vice President Al Gore.
The IPCC now consists of thousands of scientists across 195 member governments who publish new reports every six or seven years based on meticulous analyses of the latest climate research.
