Monica Medina

And that's what worries me the most because it erodes the public's confidence in those very forecasts that have never been politicized before, that have always just been based on the science

and our data, and the fact that this disinformation is happening and causing an erosion of trust in these very basic services that the government has always provided, as you said, since its founding, NOAA was one of the

original parts of NOAA were the Weather Forecasting Bureau that went back all the way to Thomas Jefferson and to Ben Franklin.

And so the idea that now people are putting out disinformation about our ability to modify the weather in order to make people afraid and to discount or

and ignore the good warnings that they get.

I mean, you look at the videos from people in Texas who actually thought that the weather forecasts couldn't be trusted because the Biden administration had been in charge of them before.

It's just crazy.

And that's a shame because that is the essential function of government, which is to keep people safe

from harm that they can't really deal with as individuals.

That's the essence of government.

And they're undermining every bit of what used to be sort of apolitical and there just to protect people.

And I, you know, whether it's our military or our civil defenses, we see this erosion and confidence in science, in government, that to me is tragic and will take a long time to rebuild.

Ben, thank you so much.

Keep it up.