In a startling move, the Trump administration has effectively halted the scientific efforts that have tracked climate change impacts across the United States for 25 years.
This dedicated group of experts, numbering around 400, had been instrumental in creating the National Climate Assessments, a series of vital reports aimed at translating scientific findings into clear warnings for both policymakers and the general public.
With their abrupt dismissal in the spring of his second term, the administration not only dismantled this crucial team but also erased all traces of past assessments from federal websites, igniting widespread concern among environmental advocates and scientists.
According to Gretchen Gehrke, who monitors federal websites for the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, this erasure is the most significant loss seen in the battle against climate change misinformation.
The National Climate Assessments served as an accessible resource that outlined the detrimental effects of climate change on regions that Americans deeply care about.
Various stakeholders, including farmers, businesses, and policymakers, relied heavily on these reports to inform their future decisions.
Although these reports have found temporary refuge in archives, their accessibility has been severely compromised, leaving uncertainty about the fate of upcoming assessments planned for 2027 or 2028, which had already been drafted.
The disappearance of these reports raises pertinent questions about the motivations behind the Trump administration’s actions.
Experts point to several interpretations, viewing the erasure as an exercise of executive power, an escalation in the ongoing culture war over climate change, or a calculated attempt to dismantle the scientific underpinnings required for effective climate policy.
Gehrke emphasizes that the suppression of information undermines the evidence needed to establish, strengthen, and even dispute regulatory measures aimed at curbing climate change.
This situation departs from traditional climate denial tactics that actively debated scientific legitimacy.
Leah Aronowsky, a science historian at Columbia Climate School, highlights a shift from vocal skepticism to more insidious strategies of information suppression, denoting a new phase of denial through erasure.
The administration has made strategic cuts, such as withdrawing nearly $4 million from a Princeton program intended to enhance computer models that predict atmospheric and oceanic changes, citing concerns over creating “climate anxiety” among young individuals.
This past April, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also failed to submit its annual report on greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations, marking a departure from its responsibility to maintain transparency.
In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discontinued its 45-year tradition of tracking billion-dollar weather disasters, further curtailing critical data accessibility.
Dismantling vital sources of climate information, including the potentially closure of the Mauna Loa laboratory in Hawai’i, which has been key in documenting the rise of atmospheric CO2 levels since the 1950s, signals an unprecedented level of research suppression under the Trump administration, according to Aronowsky.
In response to inquiries regarding the erasure of the National Climate Assessments, a NASA spokesperson stated that it has no legal obligation to maintain the data previously housed on globalchange.gov.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program contends it has fulfilled its statutory mandate by presenting its findings to Congress.
The EPA responded to queries by directing attention to a webpage listing past emissions reports, although the latest figures remain unpublished.
The White House has refrained from commenting on the matter, and NOAA has not provided a reply.
A leaked video from Project 2025, produced by the Heritage Foundation, revealed plans by former Trump officials to eliminate all climate change references within governmental communications, signifying a deliberate strategy to bolster the fossil fuel industry.
This plan comes as the realities of climate change have become increasingly apparent through intensified floods, fires, and heatwaves.
Trump’s declaration to “drill, baby, drill” during his inauguration underlines this pro-fossil fuel agenda.
Officials within the Trump administration, like Lee Zeldin at the EPA, have not entirely denied the existence of climate change but have implemented measures to dismantle essential environmental programs, including recommendations to overturn the
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