A Seinfeldian Saga – Watts Up With That?

In a move that’s as poetic as it is ironic, the Trump administration has yanked the lease out from under NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), sending the climate science hub packing from its quirky perch above Tom’s Restaurant in Manhattan. Yes, the very same diner immortalized as “Monk’s” in Seinfeld—a place where Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer debated the minutiae of nothing—is now the backdrop for a real-world drama that’s got the climate establishment clutching their pearls.

Back in 2009, our own Anthony Watts, stumbled upon the delicious coincidence that GISS, led by the ever-smirking Dr. Gavin Schmidt, was housed at 2880 Broadway, right above the iconic diner. With a wink and a nod to Seinfeld’s absurdity, Watts mused that the climate models churned out by GISS might just be as fictional as a Vandelay Industries import-export scheme. “The show about nothing,” he quipped, seemed a fitting metaphor for a lab that, in the eyes of many skeptics, produced more heat than light on global warming.

Fast forward to today, and the Trump administration has delivered a plot twist worthy of Larry David himself. According to a CNN report, the lease for GISS’s Columbia University digs has been canceled effective May 31, 2025, forcing the lab’s scientists to scatter to the winds of remote work. The email from NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center’s director, Mackenzie Lystrup, was as somber as a Soup Nazi ban: GISS employees will transition to Zoom calls and home offices while NASA scrambles for a new “permanent space.”

The timing couldn’t be more delicious. The Trump administration, locked in a feud with Columbia University over issues ranging from antisemitism policies to DEI programs, seems to have found a convenient target in GISS. With billions in federal research funding already on the chopping block and a federal judge recently curbing the administration’s ability to withhold funds over DEI disputes, this lease cancellation feels like a calculated jab. As one NASA source told CNN, the move is “demoralizing” for GISS staff, who are now “waiting for the axe to fall on the mission of Earth science” itself. Oh, the humanity! Or, as George Costanza might say, “We’re living in a society!”

Let’s not kid ourselves—GISS isn’t just any lab. It’s a cornerstone of the global climate narrative, tracking temperature records and running computer models that project apocalyptic futures. Its supercomputers, safely tucked away in Maryland, might keep humming, but the symbolic eviction from Manhattan’s Upper West Side is a body blow to the climate establishment’s ego. As Anthony noted in ’09, GISS’s proximity to Seinfeld’s fictional world always carried a whiff of farce. Now, with the lab’s physical presence reduced to a memory, one can’t help but hear Elaine’s voice: “Fake! Fake! Fake!”

Dr. Schmidt, ever the optimist, insists to CNN that “the work continues” because “science is done by people, not by buildings.” A NASA insider, speaking anonymously (because who wants to be that guy?), admitted to CNN that remote work will make GISS’s mission “more difficult” and has left the workforce rattled. And with an administration budget proposal looming that could slash NASA’s science programs by nearly 50%, the future looks about as rosy as Kramer’s get-rich-quick schemes.

For those of us who’ve long questioned the overheated rhetoric of GISS’s climate projections, this eviction is a moment to savor. Watts’ 2009 satire, complete with Seinfeld-inspired rebuttals to GISS’s claims (“The data has been adjusted, why can’t you comprehend it?”—Jerry: “If it’s in the garbage, it’s garbage!”), feels downright prophetic. The lab that once dismissed skeptics with a Soup Nazi-esque “No soup for you!” now finds itself on the receiving end of a bureaucratic “Serenity now!”

I’ve complied a list of commonly seen issues and phrases used on RC and appropriate rebuttals from Seinfeld characters:

So, here’s to GISS, booted from its Broadway perch, left to ponder its next move like Kramer contemplating a risk-free life. Will they find a new home? Will the climate models keep churning out “gold, Jerry, gold”? Or will this mark the beginning of a long-overdue reckoning for a field that’s too often leaned on shaky data and overheated narratives? Quoting Jerry: “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.”

In the meantime, let’s raise a Junior Mint to the Trump administration for delivering a plot twist that’s got us all saying, “Yada, yada, yada.” Stay tuned, folks—because when it comes to climate science, the real show about nothing is just getting started.

No actual climate scientists were harmed in the writing of this piece, though their egos may be slightly bruised.