The U.S. Brain Drain: How Policies Are Driving Talent Away

The decision to dismantle NCAR isn’t just about climate politics. It represents a systematic weakening of U.S. scientific infrastructure that took decades to build. When research institutions are targeted or hollowed out, talent leaves, capacity erodes, and the consequences show up years later in poorer forecasting, weaker preparedness, and higher human and economic costs.

This op-ed presents one perspective on that broader pattern of weakening U.S. climate research infrastructure. The authors argue that dismantling the NCAR in Boulder, Colorado, after more than 50 years at the forefront of global climate science, reflects an ideological assault on scientific institutions. They draw a historical parallel to Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union, where political loyalty displaced scientific rigor, producing severe long-term consequences.

While the comparison is provocative, the underlying concern is substantive: when governments sideline or purge scientific expertise for political ends, the damage is rarely immediate but accumulates over time. The erosion of independent climate research increases future risks from extreme weather, sea-level rise, and inadequate planning, with real human and economic costs.


Trump’s shuttering of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is Stalinist | Michael Mann and Bob Ward | The Guardian

The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin would no doubt have understood and even appreciated the latest attack by the Trump administration on climate researchers and their work.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, is to be dismantled after more than 50 years at the forefront of global research on climate science and monitoring.

This is the latest step in the administration’s climate Lysenkoism and its relentless purge of climate researchers who refuse to be co-opted into its quest for American energy dominance though fossil fuels.

Stalin’s embrace of the work of Trofim Denisovitch Lysenko, who wrongly believed that wheat could inherit characteristics acquired by previous generations, underpinned policies that failed to prevent crop failures and millions of deaths from famine during the 1930s.

Scientists who opposed Lysenkoism were denounced, fired, imprisoned and even executed. While Trump has not gone as far as Stalin, his administration’s persecution of climate researchers could ultimately lead to many millions of deaths from increases in extreme weather and sea level rise in the United States and across the world.​

 

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