America’s Loss of Science and Loss of Virtue
Image by Vlad Tchompalov.
The Trump administration has issued a death warrant for science. This kills one of America’s greatest most productive avenues to GDP growth. Simple-minded people are determining the future course of the country. After all, science is foundational to America’s economy.
This legacy for America is destined to be the antithesis of what’s found in the writings of Marcus Aurelius’ world-famous notebooks, filled with words of wisdom about leading an honorable life, Meditations, one of the world’s great pieces of literature by one of the wisest minds of the ancient world Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 CE) the 16th emperor of Rome collected thoughts in notebooks, now considered one of the most important Stoic texts of all time and common text for America’s universities today. Marcus is now stronger than ever as one of the most widely read works of philosophy in the world. Will this administration leave a “notebook” like Marcus’s for history to judge… virtue, honor, respectfulness, pursuit of the common good? Hmm.
Marcus Aurelius was the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world. “More recent leaders such as Bill Clinton have admired Marcus not so much as a philosopher-king but simply as a man who recognized that he had to do his duty as emperor without letting it go this his head and without becoming a tyrant.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditation, The Annotated Edition by Robin Waterfield, Basic Books, 2021).
Marcus’s notebooks are filled with praise for a virtuous lifestyle. He describes the most important virtue as “acting fairly, honestly, and with kindness towards others, thus recognizing one’s duty to the community and the common good.” ICE?
Yet, America is experiencing a feast of political retribution and destruction of value-oriented policies created for the common good. This is destruction via a wrecking ball of indeterminate size because it is so large that it’s difficult to fully comprehend. For example, Trump underlings are halting construction of major offshore wind farms, based upon a squirrely excuse of “threats to national security” (classified reports) creating radar interference. Why does this sound phony? Come on now, seriously, years ago, Trump claimed windmills cause cancer, said he hates them, before anybody dreamed up a national security issue. They’re suspending five major projects that were slated to go into full operation in 2026 and early 2027. Wind is free, no CO2 emissions, suspending work is prima facie evidence of insanity at work.
The Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts’ coast is one of the targeted projects. One-half of its turbines are already generating power and sending it to the grid while the remainder of the massive 62-turbine-farm remains under construction, aiming to serve 400,000 homes with electricity when fully operational. However, as of December 22, 2025, it is now officially halted by a federal order from the DOI. Meanwhile, the operating turbines have exceeded all pro forma expectations for electricity generation. Standing tall!
In pitch-perfect Newspeak, Trump officials say cuts in science are made in “the interest of better science” that benefits all Americans. That has a very bad odor to it. Nearly 2,000 doctors, scientists, and researchers, including dozens of Nobel Prize winners, signed an open letter warning that the U.S. lead in science is being “decimated” and that a “climate of fear” has descended on the research community. More than 90 NIH researchers publicly signed a separate letter, aka: the “Bethesda Declaration” criticizing deep cuts in public health research. That doesn’t sound like better science.
Plans to Breakup “The Mother of Climate Research”
“White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, in a post Tuesday on X, announced the plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, calling it ‘one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.’ NCAR was founded more than six decades ago to provide universities with expertise and resources for collaborative research on global weather, water, and climate challenges… Antonio Busalacchi, who heads the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of 129 U.S. universities that oversees the Boulder facility, told NPR he received no prior notice before the announcement and believes the decision ‘is entirely political.” (Scientists Push Back on Trump Plan to Break Up a Critical Climate and Weather Center, NPR, Texas Public Radio, Dec. 20, 2025)
NCAR impressively impacts every American, e.g., among NCAR’s many contributions, it developed dropsondes — tube-shaped instruments released from aircraft…Antonio Busalacchi says these efforts have contributed to decades without passenger plane crashes caused by wind shear or downbursts. “We’ve had zero loss of life from these weather events that can be directly attributed to our research. And that’s what we’re talking about losing, if NCAR shuts down,” Ibid.
The threat to NCAR is far-reaching: “Jason Furtado, an associate professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, calls NCAR ‘a world-envied research center for atmospheric science’ and ‘a beating heart for the atmospheric science community.’ He says his research and that of many other scientists would simply not be possible without the Boulder center. ‘In some way every atmospheric scientist has a connection to NCAR, whether they’ve directly been to the building or they have not,” Ibid.
Negatively clobbering atmospheric scientists does not make science better. It makes it much, much worse and threatening a society that is increasingly harmed by climate change’s insane whiplashing weather systems that, if not forewarned, kill and destroy, sending a clear message that fossil fuel CO2 emissions heat up the planet beyond sustainability of a 10,000-year-old climate system, not too hot, not too cold. Why have the insurance industry and commercial banks figured this one out, yet the White House seems lost in the weeds?
“Insured losses from natural disasters in the U.S. now routinely approach $100 billion a year, compared to $4.6 billion in 2000,’ according to a recent Senate Budget Committee report… Costs to insure many homes are higher today, and in some cases, insurance is harder—in certain areas even seemingly impossible—to find.” (How Climate Risk — and losses — Are Creating High Prices for Home Insurance, JP Morgan, May 16, 2025)
The world’s largest insurance company: Allianz: How Climate Change is Unravelling Insurance Markets, Sustainability Magazine, April 7, 2025. This is no hoax.
Ipso facto, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder has never been needed more than today. Major insurance companies and major commercial banks have already identified the issue of a whacky climate system supercharged by burning too much fossil fuels as a threat to America’s economic system. But now, with the Trump cuts, everybody’s flying blind in the face of torrential climate behavior seen on nightly news programs throughout the country.
Statement by Allianz Senior Executive
“The way forward, according to Allianz and others, is unequivocal – reduce emissions at speed and scale. The technologies already exist – solar, wind, battery storage, green hydrogen, grid upgrades – but deployment remains sluggish. This is not just a moral imperative, they argue. It is a financial one. This is not about saving the planet. This is about saving the conditions under which markets, finance and civilization itself can continue to operate. Manufacturers, particularly those dependent on insurance, finance and cross-border capital flows, must see decarbonization as not just a regulatory or ethical requirement—but as a precondition for business continuity,” Ibid.
Those wind farms could save tons of CO2 emissions that heat up the planet, disrupting thousands of years of a Goldilocks’ climate system. It’s nearly gone!
Meanwhile, scientists are looking overseas for work.
What a mess!
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