Trumps Pause on Cross-Border Collaboration Threatens Weather Forecasting and Fisheries Research Mother Jones [Video]

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This story was originally published by the Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Canadian climate and fisheries experts are reeling after the Trump administration ordered researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—the US government agency in charge of weather forecasting, climate research, and fisheries—to temporarily stop communicating with “foreign nationals.” 

The move, which was first reported Wednesday by Wired, could devastate weather and oceanic forecasting, climate change research, and Canada’s ability to manage and study key fish stocks like Pacific salmon and halibut, experts and advocates say. 

“This is not a small blow for climate research—it is a body blow,” said Tzeporah Berman, a long-time Canadian climate advocate and expert. If implemented permanently, the move would hamstring some of the world’s most important climate monitoring data …