Outcry as Trump administration shutters two US government websites on climate change
This came a month after Climate.gov's team was let go, in line with the Trump administration's broader budget cuts to science funding.
SINGAPORE - The Trump administration has made moves in recent weeks to shutter two US government websites housing global resources on climate science.
Climate.gov, a website which supported public education in climate science, was the first to be taken down on June 24.
This came a month after its entire team of employees was let go on May 31, in line with the Trump administration's broader budget cuts to science funding, the Guardian reported.
The site, which was housed under the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), was run by a team of about 10 staff, who put out editorial content to educate the public about the climate, the Guardian's report added.
One of its key features was the global climate dashboard, which tracked changes in climate change indicators – including sea and arctic ice levels, carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas levels, and average surface temperature – over time.
Checks by The Straits Times on July 5 showed that keying in the website's URL now redirects users to
noaa.gov/climate , where a brief message informs users of the former site's closure.
The social media pages affiliated with the site, through which bite-sized information on climate were shared, also uploaded their final posts on June 28.
It had 340,000 followers on its Facebook page, while its Instagram page had 117,000.
The site's closure has spawned a huge outcry in the global scientific community.
Ms Rachel Brittin, an American science communicator and the former deputy director of external affairs at Noaa, criticised the move in a July 29 LinkedIn post which has since gone viral.
As at July 5, the post has received over 2,900 reactions, and has been reposted over 700 times.
Ms Brittin wrote: 'We lost the people who built and maintained one of the most trusted sources of climate information in the world. This wasn't just a budget cut, though. It was a deliberate dismantling of public access to climate science.
'For years, climate.gov helped teachers explain climate change, journalists report on real-world impacts, farmers plan around drought, and coastal communities prepare for sea level rise.'
Another US government website, globalchange.gov, went down a week later on June 30, reported the Los Angeles Times.
The page, which was the gateway to the US Global Change Research Programme, was taken down alongside five iterations of the country's National Climate Change Report.
The US Global Change Research Programme was established under a 1990 US law, which mandated that climate assessments be undertaken every four years.
However, in April,
the Trump administration dismissed hundreds of scientists who had begun to embark on the country's newest climate assessment report .
Ramifications of the website closures have rippled beyond America's shores.
Dr Ian Chan, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore's Department of Biological Sciences, was among those who expressed disappointment at the news.
He had incorporated climate.gov maps depicting historical, current and future global temperatures in his teaching, while students used temperature and rainfall data in their classroom projects.
Dr Chan said: 'Both websites provided a lot of freely available data, which was extremely useful for educators teaching classes and scientists doing research at all levels – from primary schools to universities and beyond.
'Beyond data, the websites also housed other information, such as funding sources for educators, internships and fellowships for students, and news stories for the general public – all conveniently curated and easily accessible in one place.'
In the wake of the news, some groups have been cobbling together resources to protect public data that could be at risk of being lost from cuts by the Trump administration.
It includes the Data Rescue Project, which was founded in February 2025 in the hopes of coordinating 'data rescue-related efforts and data access points for public US governmental data that are currently at risk'.
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