World-leading climate centre takes Trump administration to court

Under Trump, the US government has said that it will take steps to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, alleging that it promotes climate alarmism. The organization that manages NCAR — a coalition of around 130 universities called the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) — sued the government in March to stop NCAR’s break-up.

Researchers say that NCAR is a crucial global resource whose models underpin much of modern atmospheric science, including artificial-intelligence studies¹ aimed at decoding and predicting extreme weather. “Losing NCAR would mean losing decades of institutional knowledge, something that cannot be plugged back in two or four or even ten years from now,” says Angeline Pendergrass, an atmospheric scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.