Two Scientific Groups Say They’ll Keep Working on U.S. Climate Assessment
The organizations said they would publish researchers’ work even after the Trump administration decision to dismiss all authors on the project.
A person holding a balloon aloft on the top of a mountain.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration technician collecting air samples on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, in 2023.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
The decision Monday affected hundreds of researchers, scientists and experts who were contributing to the report, according to the authors. The most recent version, released in November 2023, found that extreme weather events cost the U.S. economy nearly $150 billion each year and disproportionately hurt poor and disadvantaged communities.
The assessment is used by state officials, emergency planners and businesses to prepare for extreme weather events in the coming years. Along with risks, it also outlines ways to adapt to a warming climate, such as changing farming practices, upgrading infrastructure to handle more rainfall and relocating homes and businesses from flood-prone areas.
“People around the nation rely on the NCA to understand how climate change is impacting their daily lives already and what to expect in the future,” said Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists and an author of the report. “Trying to bury this report won’t alter the scientific facts one bit, but without this information our country risks flying blind into a world made more dangerous by human-caused climate change.”
The National Climate Assessment has been mandated under law since 1990 and is developed by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the federal unit that Congress created to organize the reports. The assessments are produced in a yearslong process by contributors and reviewed by federal agencies.
The federal government released its fourth National Climate Assessment in 2018 under Trump’s first administration. The report detailed the effects of global climate change, if left unchecked, and how efforts to slow the effects of rising temperatures were falling short. President Trump at the time said he didn’t believe the report’s assessment that global climate change would cost the U.S. billions of dollars in economic losses each year by the end of the century.
SEE HEROES OF SCIENCE--KEEPING CLIMATE RECORDS GOING AS TRUMP'S TROGLODYTE'S CUT FUNDING--
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/climate/national-climate-assessment-trump.html
Two Scientific Groups Say They’ll Keep Working on U.S. Climate Assessment
The organizations said they would publish researchers’ work even after the Trump administration decision to dismiss all authors on the project.
A person holding a balloon aloft on the top of a mountain.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration technician collecting air samples on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, in 2023.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
https://www.wsj.com/science/environment/trump-national-climate-assessment-scientists-7c6b565b?mod=hp_lista_pos2
From the Wall Street Journal, 4/29/25
The decision Monday affected hundreds of researchers, scientists and experts who were contributing to the report, according to the authors. The most recent version, released in November 2023, found that extreme weather events cost the U.S. economy nearly $150 billion each year and disproportionately hurt poor and disadvantaged communities.
The assessment is used by state officials, emergency planners and businesses to prepare for extreme weather events in the coming years. Along with risks, it also outlines ways to adapt to a warming climate, such as changing farming practices, upgrading infrastructure to handle more rainfall and relocating homes and businesses from flood-prone areas.
“People around the nation rely on the NCA to understand how climate change is impacting their daily lives already and what to expect in the future,” said Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists and an author of the report. “Trying to bury this report won’t alter the scientific facts one bit, but without this information our country risks flying blind into a world made more dangerous by human-caused climate change.”
The National Climate Assessment has been mandated under law since 1990 and is developed by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the federal unit that Congress created to organize the reports. The assessments are produced in a yearslong process by contributors and reviewed by federal agencies.
The federal government released its fourth National Climate Assessment in 2018 under Trump’s first administration. The report detailed the effects of global climate change, if left unchecked, and how efforts to slow the effects of rising temperatures were falling short. President Trump at the time said he didn’t believe the report’s assessment that global climate change would cost the U.S. billions of dollars in economic losses each year by the end of the century.