The Trump administration said it won’t publish a climate change report on the NASA website despite a promise to do so. It’s the latest step from the administration in removing information about climate change on federal sites.
Climate change reporting
Every couple of years, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) puts out the National Climate Assessment (NCA). The goal is to keep the public informed about the impacts of climate change and help guide decision-making at the local, state and federal levels of government.
The USGCRP is comprised of thirteen different agencies, with more than 300 people contributing to the production of the full reports. The latest report, released in 2023, highlighted the dangers of climate change, with the next one scheduled for 2027.
A 1990 law requires that report to be established. Earlier this month, the Trump administration shut down the official government website that hosts the reports.
The White House indicated NASA would then host those reports but is now backtracking on that plan.
“The USGCRP met its statutory requirements by presenting its reports to Congress. NASA has no legal obligations to host globalchange.gov’s data,” NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens told the Associated Press.
The AP reports Stevens said no data from the latest report will be on the NASA website.
“The new stance is classic Trump administration misdirection,” former Obama White House Science Advisor John Holdren told the Associated Press. “In this instance, the administration offers a modest consolation to quell initial outrage over the closure of the globalchange.gov site and the disappearance of the National Climate Assessments. Then, two weeks later, they snatch away the consolation with no apology.”
While he has professed his love for “clean air and clean water,” Trump has criticized climate change and adjacent initiatives as overly burdensome. The president has also said regulations like those that promote renewable energy are inefficient. He declared a national energy emergency earlier in his second term that put a focus on maximizing domestic power production.
The reports still live on the internet at this website.
Pulling climate change from the spotlight
While we know the administration no longer plans on publishing these reports, it’s unclear if the next one will even take place despite the legal requirement. Some 400 scientists working on that next report were all fired back in April.
CBS News reports that those scientists received an email letting them go. That email reportedly said the scope of the assessment is being “reevaluated.”
The Trump administration has also taken other actions to avoid climate change data. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not publish a mandatory annual report on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that goes to the United Nations.
They also put an end to the “billion-dollar weather and climate disasters” database, which tracks the cost of extreme weather and climate events.
Project 2025
Targeting the USGCRP is something that was laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Despite President Donald Trump distancing himself from that initiative, this is the latest policy shift to go along with that plan.
Other major Project 2025 plans the president has followed include abolishing the Department of Education, ending DEI practices and banning transgender people from the military.
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Author: Cole Lauterbach
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