Trump Administration Removes National Climate Assessment Websites

The Trump administration has taken steps that have made it more difficult to access the National Climate Assessment (NCA), a key government report detailing the impacts of climate change in the United States. The official websites that hosted the most recent and authoritative climate assessments were taken down, and plans for NASA to host these reports were abandoned, with NASA stating it has no legal obligation to publish the data online since the reports have already been submitted to Congress. This move has sparked widespread criticism from scientists and environmentalists who argue that limiting public access to this vital information undermines transparency and public safety, especially as climate-related disasters continue to escalate. The NCA is widely used by various stakeholders, including teachers, city planners, and farmers, to understand local and national climate risks, and the removal of easy online access has raised concerns about the administration's commitment to climate awareness. Climate scientists such as Katharine Hayhoe emphasize the importance of the NCA in connecting the public to the realities of climate change, while critics accuse the administration of censorship and intentional suppression of scientific information. Despite the controversy, past reports remain available through other government libraries, though the future of the next scheduled assessment remains uncertain due to staff layoffs and halted work.