Why is NASA badmouthed in this?

The movie tries to make us think that the mayor is an idiot for listening to NASA instead of one lady. Why one lady be expected to know more about the atmosphere than the combined force of NASA? We are supposed to believe that they all got it wrong, but she gets it right, just by pure chance? If I was the mayor, I'd have gone with NASA too. To hell with that lady. Only reason she was right was it's a movie. In real life, she'd have been a raving lunatic and only a fool would listen to her idiotic ramblings.