One woman, one dream, multiple failures

Kate Marvel is a brilliant scientist. Her academic credentials are amazing: a B.A. in Physics and Astronomy from UCal Berkeley, a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cambridge; Post-doctoral Fellowships in climate science from Carnegie-Mellon and Stanford. For twelve years she pursued a brilliant career of research, writing and speaking at the prestigious NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Sciences, studying the undeniable effects of climate change on Earth's systems. Now she is gone, one of more than 10,000 Ph.D. scientists who have left the U.S. federal workforce since President Trump took office, a devastating scientific exodus. In her letter of resignation, Marvel wrote "I thought I'd spend my entire career working at this wonderful place. But I never expected that science itself would come under attack, simply because it — like journalism, history, and even the best kind of art — is a way of seeking the truth. I'm leaving because I want to tell the truth." She later wrote, "Tracking the changes to Earth from space satellites put me and my colleagues in the cross hairs of an administration particularly devoted to protecting the interests of the oil and gas industry." Her research group survived the initial cuts of DOGE but were evicted from their New York City office for no apparent reason. She continued to write grant proposals, many of which mysteriously disappeared or were marked "selectable" which meant they were good grants but no money would be available to fund them. Later, they learned the truth; NASA was illegally putting into effect Trump's cuts in science funding without waiting for Congress to approve the funds. Then, the library at the NASA Goddard Space Center was shut down as were dozens of labs. "The bosses," she states, "were more interested in making sure no one had pronouns in their email signatures than they were in protecting science." One of her "bosses" was Jared Isaacman, an American billionaire entrepreneur and commercial astronaut with close ties to Elon Musk. He was made a NASA administrator by Trump and confirmed in November of 2025. One of the most outstanding American journals is Science; to be published there is a real honor. Following an article published by Marvel and her team, this billionaire published a letter in Science. He disparaged their work, saying about climate science that "for NASA to assemble scientists and put out papers on politically charged issue, whether or not this is an impending climate catastrophe, is not helpful to the broader NASA mission." This was the final straw — Kate Marvel left. She had to; there would be no more funding, no more laboratories, no more satellite images to study. The government that she had loved and trusted betrayed her. I would make several points here, echoing the views of Marvel: • Climate science is not "politically charged" no matter what the administration says. The scientists doing this vital work are not trying to make policy. They are seeking the truth and they have discovered many critical aspects of that truth, most notably that the Petrochemical corporations are controlling our politics. • Climate change is "political" only because so many of our politicians, especially those in executive and Cabinet positions, have so labeled that area of science. Studies have clearly demonstrated that corporate polluters and Trump's billionaire allies are getting richer as they perpetuate the climate crisis, while we are left to bear the impacts. • Government officials continue to use climate denial and misinformation as tactics to prevent effective climate policy. In the current 119th Congress, 69 percent of leadership positions are held by climate deniers. The Cabinet is nearly unanimous in their denial, with those whose departments most effect the environment (Zeldin, EPA ; Burgum, Interior and Wright, Energy) being the most outspoken in their praise of gas and oil and their Presidential Master. J.D. Vance, in 2020 at a talk he gave at Ohio State, admitted there was a climate problem; he now is a total denier as he is velcroed to the President. As for Trump, I believe his views are summed up by this comment at the General Assembly of the UN: "(Climate change) is the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world." • How can these officials be so blind? Let's just say that gas and oil paid 88% of the $250 million given at the last election to Republicans plus an additional $25 million to the Republican National Committee. • We are all enthralled and cheering for the crew of the Artemis II mission. Their photos have been breathtaking. NASA obviously has no problem spending vast sums of money as we move out from our planet to the Moon and Mars. But why do they ignore the problems on Earth? Why is the factual truth of climate change being swept away, being disparaged and ridiculed? Why else, my friends, but political dollars. • I would close by another quote from Kate Marvel. "You (the people of Earth) deserve wonder; you deserve awe and discovery. And space is not a playground for billionaires. Space is something that belongs to everybody who lives on this planet." Dr. Bob Murray is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Heidelberg University.