March 6, 2025 — Many in California’s science community are reeling after last week’s mass firings within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration upended workers’ lives and raised dire concerns for the climate agency’s work going forward.
At least seven people, including National Weather Service employees and staff at the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NOAA Fisheries, lost their jobs along the Central Coast.
Their stories are similar and heart-wrenching. The early-career federal workers are planning marriages, recently signed mortgages and were saving to buy their first homes. But last Thursday, they got an email saying they were “not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge, and/or skills do not fit the agency’s current needs” — many of them before their supervisors even knew.