Trump Dismisses Scientists Writing Key Climate Report
CLIMATEWIRE | The Trump administration on Monday dismissed all of the scientists working on the newest version of the National Climate Assessment, a sweeping report that outlines the growing dangers of rising temperatures for lawmakers, policy experts and the public.
The sixth installment of the congressionally mandated report, which was due to come out by 2028, has typically been put together by about 400 researchers, many of whom are top scientists at universities who volunteer their time. The assessment is used to craft environmental rules, legislation and infrastructure project planning. It seen by experts as the definitive body of research about how global warming is transforming the country.
Work had already begun on the sixth version. The Trump administration ended that with a note sent to researchers Monday.
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'At this time, the scope of the NCA6 is currently being reevaluated in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990,' contributors were told in an email obtained by POLITICO's E&E News.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move was roundly criticized by climate scientists late Monday as the news spread. The assessments help Americans 'understand how climate change is impacting their daily lives already and what to expect in the future,' said Rachel Cleetus, one of the researchers who was dismissed.
'Trying to bury this report won't alter the scientific facts one bit, but without this information our country risks flying blind into a world made more dangerous by human-caused climate change,' said Cleetus, a senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement. 'The only beneficiaries of disrupting or killing this report are the fossil fuel industry and those intent on boosting oil and gas profits at the expense of people's health and the nation's economic well-being.'
The plan closely tracks with a proposal by White House budget director Russ Vought, who has urged the Trump administration to toss out all work on the assessment that began under former President Joe Biden. Vought wants to help pick a new group of researchers to issue a report that reflects the administration's claims that climate change is not a serious threat. That report might focus on how climate change 'benefits' the U.S., according to a plan he outlined in Project 2025, the conservative policy proposal produced by the Heritage Foundation.
Earlier this month, the administration defunded the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which supports the assessment. The program, which coordinated the work of 13 federal agencies, had existed for 35 years through Republican and Democratic presidencies, including Trump's first term.
Trump officials were caught by surprise by the timing of the fourth National Climate Assessment as it was being prepared for release in 2018. Some wanted to withhold the report and fire the scientists who worked on it, but that plan was scuttled. Instead, the White House tried to downplay the report by releasing it the day after Thanksgiving, but that only increased the attention it received.
It's unclear whom Vought would try to recruit for the next assessment, if there is one.
There is a relatively small pool of credentialed researchers who downplay the scientific consensus that climate change could push the planet past a series of dangerous tipping points. Some have already told E&E News that they are willing to be involved with the new effort.
On Monday, some of the dismissed researchers pledged to continue their work in some fashion. That includes Bob Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University, and an author of the chapter on ocean coasts that was being prepared for the sixth report.
'I know many of the authors would like to find a way to ensure that Americans can still have an updated, evidence-based assessment of our country's climate,' he wrote on Bluesky.
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