A federal district court judge recently ruled against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), condemning its removal of public health resources as harmful and arbitrary. This decision comes amidst a growing concern over the systematic deletion of crucial climate change information from government websites, a practice that gained momentum during the Trump administration. The removal of these resources has sparked a significant backlash as various groups strive to preserve webpages, tools, and data that are essential for understanding climate change.
The first Trump administration initiated a controversial trend by removing discussions of climate change and climate policies from government websites. This action set a precedent that escalated during the second Trump administration, which removed information at an even faster rate and with more pervasive effects. In just the first three weeks of Trump's term, at least a dozen climate and environmental justice analysis tools vanished from government platforms, raising alarms among environmental advocates.
Despite these efforts to erase climate data, many data collection programs, such as those managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, remain protected by congressional mandates. However, while the EPA has not yet removed its climate change pages, it has subtly omitted "climate change" from its navigation menu, reflecting a broader strategy of minimizing public access to climate information.
As of February 13, 2025, there has been no destruction of climate science records. Yet, the second Trump administration has been accused of "flooding the zone" with initiatives aimed at dismantling science agencies and disrupting the communication channels they use to inform the public. This aggressive approach underscores the critical importance of preserving public access to environmental data.
To counter these efforts, organizations like Public Environmental Data Partners have taken proactive measures to ensure that climate science data remains accessible to all. They have been diligently archiving climate datasets and uploading copies to public repositories, safeguarding this valuable information for future use. Their efforts are complemented by initiatives such as the End of Term Web Archive, which has captured snapshots of millions of government webpages, making them accessible through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
The global reliance on U.S. federal data to comprehend climate change highlights the significance of these preservation efforts. Accurate and comprehensive data is vital for understanding the environmental challenges facing low-income and marginalized communities disproportionately impacted by climate changes. One such tool, the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, was removed from government websites despite its role in mapping vulnerable communities expected to experience severe climate shifts.
The archiving endeavors by Public Environmental Data Partners and similar organizations have ensured that critical climate and environmental justice datasets and tools remain available to researchers, policymakers, and the general public. Their dedication to preserving this information underscores the ongoing battle to maintain transparency and accountability in government communication regarding environmental issues.
