2 days ago
Why were websites hosting major US climate reports taken down?
In a development that raised alarms across the country, several key websites that displayed legally mandated US national climate assessments have gone dark, leaving leaders, planners, and citizens without access to some of the most detailed climate information available for the United States. The 1990 Global Change Research Act requires a national climate assessment every four years. (AFP)
According to AP, websites for the national assessments and the US Global Change Research Program were offline on Monday and Tuesday, with no links, notes or referrals elsewhere.
The disappearance has sparked concern over transparency, public access to science, and potential risks to communities facing escalating climate threats.
"It's a sad day for the United States if it is true that the National Climate Assessment is no longer available," said University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs, who coordinated the 2014 version of the report.
"This is evidence of serious tampering with the facts and with people's access to information, and it actually may increase the risk of people being harmed by climate-related impacts," he added. Why were the websites down?
The White House on Tuesday confirmed that the information was being relocated to NASA, claiming the move was intended to comply with legal requirements. However, searches for the assessments on NASA websites did not turn them up.
Dead links and outdated references have replaced interactive tools and county-level data that once served as planning lifelines for local officials across the country. NASA and NOAA — the agencies previously responsible for hosting and coordinating the data — have not responded to repeated AP inquiries.
No official timeline for the takedown has been given so far.
The most recent report, issued in 2023, included an interactive atlas that zoomed down to the county level. It found that climate change is affecting people's security, health and livelihoods in every corner of the country in different ways, with minority and Native American communities often disproportionately at risk.
The 1990 Global Change Research Act requires a national climate assessment every four years and directs the president to establish an interagency United States Global Change Research Program. Trump fired volunteer authors of climate assessment
In the spring, the Trump administration told the volunteer authors of the next climate assessment that their services weren't needed and ended the contract with the private firm that helps coordinate the website and report.
Additionally, NOAA's main website was recently forwarded to a different NOAA website. Social media and blogs at NOAA and NASA about climate impacts for the general public were cut or eliminated.
