Since September of 2024, federal science agencies in the US have axed nearly 120,000 employees, in a stinging loss for public research. Some of the heaviest impact was felt by scientists studying the climate, at bureaus like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Luckily for us, climate scientists are a resourceful bunch. A recent initiative pushed by former NOAA staffers has led to the creation of a non-profit website to share trusted climate data with the public.
Called climate.us, the new site is is built by former staffers behind climate.gov, the NOAA site which researchers, environmental journalists, and insurance underwriters alike have long trusted for accurate climate data — a public service eviscerated by the Trump administration.
The new site recently went “fully active” as a clone of climate.gov on Tuesday, managing director Rebecca Lindsey told the New York Times. It contains some 15 years of raw data on climate and weather, articles, illustrated reports, as well as access to government mandated climate assessments.
“Trusted climate information should not disappear when politics change,” Lindsey said in a statement published on the new site. “Climate.us is building an independent, durable platform so people can continue to find the data and information they need to understand and talk about climate, and to teach, report, plan, prepare, and make informed decisions.”
So far, over 2,500 donors have contributed around $250,000 to fund the new platform. In addition, some 80 scientists and subject matter experts have signed on to review the site’s content.
The new initiative comes nearly a year after the Trump administration “hid the front door” to climate.gov, as Lindsey put it, by redirecting the web address to a different NOAA website after firing almost all the staff. That obfuscation made years of climate information functionally inaccessible to the public. That it’s now being resurrected is a huge deal for the dissemination of accurate and accessible scientific data.
“The value and impact that climate.gov produced cannot be overstated,” Richard Spinrad, former administrator of the NOAA said in a statement. “Climate.us will continue that critical function, and ensure the legacy of providing essential data products and services is sustained, even in the face of political manipulation of the scientific enterprise.”
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