Lemmy NZ

Excerpt:

“We’re the canary in the coal mine, and there’s lots of coal dust in the air,” says Schofield, a biological oceanographer at Rutgers University who first came to Antarctica as a graduate student in the early 1990s. “And just when we need to know even more about what’s happening to the canary, it feels like the United States is in a period of retreat.”

The U.S. Antarctic research program is in trouble, as canceled field seasons imperil data sets and demoralize researchers.

This summer NSF decided to cancel or curtail 67—more than half—of the 131 projects and activities funded for the 2023–24 austral summer after concluding it couldn’t provide them with the necessary logistical support.