Trump’s Gutting of US Climate Report Prompts Science Groups to Step Up
(Bloomberg) -- Two US science organizations are launching a new climate research initiative in the wake of the Trump administration dismissing expert authors of the National Climate Assessment.
Described in a May 2 statement by the groups as a “first-of-its-kind special collection” of research on climate change in the US, the effort won’t be able to replace the sweeping, congressionally mandated assessment, which was a year into its sixth iteration when its authors and staff were let go, said the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. But they hope that it will help keep the work going.
The groups will publish peer-reviewed manuscripts over their suite of publications rather than trying to replicate the report in a single volume, said Brandon Jones, president of the American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest association of Earth and space scientists. The aim is to create a library of information that can be consulted by people in government, academia, philanthropy and business.
“The goal is to provide another platform for the important climate research to continue,” Jones said. The invitation is open to any scientists and researchers who want to contribute, he added.
Recent editions of the landmark US report have outlined how the risks of wildfires, floods, heat waves and intense storms have been rising as greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels cause the world to warm. Because it is comprehensive, the assessment has enabled the public and private sectors to prepare for the impacts of climate change, said David Stensrud, president of the 12,000-member American Meteorological Society.
The latest edition, released in 2023, was almost 2,000 pages long with about 750 scientists and researchers contributing to it. There have been five completed assessments since Congress passed the Global Change Research Act of 1990.
A sixth assessment would have been released in 2027 or 2028 and was being authored by hundreds of scientists working on a volunteer basis, coordinated by staff at the cross-agency US Global Change Research Program. The contract for those staff was terminated last month, according to multiple reports. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said the scope of the project is being reevaluated and all participants are released from their roles.
“Without this information our country risks flying blind into a world made more dangerous by human-caused climate change,” Rachel Cleetus, a report author and senior policy director for climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement.
The author dismissals come after months of financial and staff cuts at a variety of science-focused government entities including the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its child agency the National Weather Service, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is tasked with helping the public recover and rebuild from extreme weather and climate events.
In January, President Donald Trump canceled the first National Nature Assessment, another report the Global Change Research Program coordinated, by revoking the Biden-era executive order that had authorized it.
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