Researchers to quit USDA rather than leave Washington metro area

[TexasTowelie]

WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration prepares to move two Agriculture Department research agencies and more than 500 jobs out of the nation’s capital region, many of the agencies’ employees appear ready to quit their jobs rather than leave their homes.

Democratic lawmakers in Virginia have attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to put the brakes on the administration’s plans in an effort to keep their constituents’ jobs nearby.

The Trump administration announced plans last month to move the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) out of Washington, D.C., to a new office in the Kansas City area. The administration, pushing a tight timeline to try to relocate both agencies by the end of September, is moving 253 of the 329 ERS positions to Kansas City. Out of NIFA’s 315 positions, 294 will relocate while 21 will stay in the Washington area, according to USDA.

Agricultural researchers and economists faced the first deadline this week to tell the agency if they would uproot their lives and move to Kansas City or leave their jobs. The majority of the workforce has not accepted the transfer to Kansas City.

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2019/07/17/researchers-to-quit-usda-rather-than-leave-washington-metro-area/

[Skittles]

1. which is exactly what Trump INC wants

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. That was the whole idea.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Mission Accomplished...

[dlk]

4. Trump's Intentional Brain Drain

How can we recover from the massive loss of so many seasoned scientific researchers? The GOP is really lighting a match to our government and our standing in the world.

[misanthrope]

6. Not just to our standing

ultimately to the viability of the biosphere. But there's money to be made and in our culture/economy/society then that's what matters most.

[dlk]

7. Agreed, with the Climate Crisis Rapidly Accelerating, We Need Quality Research More Than Ever

[misanthrope]

9. Yep. Another thing a lot of folks don't think about

Last edited Thu Jul 18, 2019, 04:25 PM - Edit history (3)

Consider this: what dictates our seasons? As the days grow longer, as the sun's angle shifts, its path through our sky ascends and daylight grows, our temperatures rise. The summer solstice for the northern hemisphere, the date with the most daylight is in the third week of June.

But when is the hottest part of the summer? It's normally the two months following the solstice even though the heating mechanism (the exposure to the sunlight) is diminishing all the while. It takes time for the full effect to play out. Winter is the same way but inverted. The coldest months follow the solstice although the daylight is increasing.

So even if we could wave a magic wand and drop emissions to near zero tomorrow, it's still going to take a while to see their results. It would take decades to wait out the disastrous effects of the carbon dioxide we've added to date. Add feedback like continued loss of both albedo and forestation, methane release and you see the unknown dangers we face.

The longer we delay wide-scale action, then the more it compounds. What we've seen thus far is only the very beginning.

[dlk]

10. Too Many People Drift Along Until It's Time to Hit the Panic Button

By then it will be too late.

[misanthrope]

11. Yes. Humanity has a long and proven record

of being terrible at proactive measures and being mostly reactive.

[spanone]

5. mi$$ion accomplished

[Thomas Hurt]

8. the goal of fascist anti-intellectualism in practice.