👋 Hi, everybody. This week, we’re talking about climate science — more specifically, how we access facts, figures, and information about the climate crisis and who takes on the responsibility of making sure that vital information reaches the public. (Hint: It’s not the federal government! At least, not currently.) 

We’ve also got news about a very cool scientific discovery, as well as infrastructure projects, politics, and an upcoming event. 

This post originally appeared in Grist’s weekly solutions newsletter, Looking Forward. Not on our list yet? Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Friday.

What it takes to preserve climate information

A man looks at multiple screens showing science readings at NOAA

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

It can be easy to take information for granted. Especially in an age when answers to just about every question are right at our fingertips. But we are also living through a sobering reminder that the same internet that makes information so available can also make it vulnerable. 

In December, the Environmental Protection Agency removed at least 80 pages from its website describing climate change and its causes and consequences. That was after the administration had deleted National Climate Assessment reports — and dismissed the scientists working on the sixth installment of the congressionally-mandated report. 

Just this past week, the Department of Energy appears to have deleted a page that recommended setting thermostats to 75-78 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to save energy (right as New York City’s progressive mayor caught flak for repeating the recommendation).

As we’ve discussed before, presidential administrations typically change messaging and wording to fit their agendas. But this is different: “It’s more like, wholesale, resources and websites coming down,” my colleague Kate Yoder told me. She’s been following the erasure of climate information and science under the second Trump administration — and the efforts to preserve it. 

Those efforts have included former federal employees regrouping and rebooting some of the climate resources they had been working on as nonprofit or independent efforts. The most recent new initiative is Climate.us, a site launched last month by the team of science communicators who had been behind Climate.gov, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s erstwhile climate site that included maps and other visuals, news stories, resources for educators, and more. 

The intent, as the managing director told Kate, is not only to preserve a copy of that website, but to actually continue the work of updating the information and translating it in ways that can reach people. 

Another former NOAA project — the billion-dollar climate disaster tracker — has found a new home at a nonprofit called Climate Central, along with some other former government resources and the scientists who created and maintained them.

Kate talked to the people behind these and other efforts for a story this week looking at the state of these types of preservation efforts. 

She documented scientists grappling with some expected and serious challenges to restarting entire programs from scratch without federal support. Finding funding is a major hurdle — coupled with the fact that these scientists with incredibly specialized skill sets are now having to take on a brand new role as fundraisers themselves. 

There’s also a question of visibility. “Nonprofits just aren’t inherently recognizable like the federal government is, so there’s extra work sometimes that needs to happen to establish some credibility,” Kate noted. But there have been some positive signs that the information is reaching people — in the two weeks since Climate.us launched, the site garnered around 800,000 pageviews. Its government predecessor was getting around 1 million a month.

“I think when I started reporting this story, I was like, ‘OK, here we go — here’s how nonprofits can’t fulfill the role of the federal government,’” Kate said. She expected to write a story about a patchwork effort to foster resources that really need a stable, centralized home. 

But, experts told her, the infrastructure supporting public resources even when they were housed at the federal government may have been more tenuous than people on the other end ever realized — sometimes depending on a single person with specialized expertise, or a web of longstanding relationships. 

And as she discussed the challenges with experts leading the charge to preserve those resources, she discovered a bigger question: “Why are our data and our climate resources vulnerable to political interference in the first place? And is there a way that different organizations can safeguard the future of them, not just in the U.S. but also around the world?”

What she saw, ultimately, was the beginnings of people trying to figure out how to reform the system to keep information more secure. 

Hosting resources with nongovernmental organizations instead of ones subject to political whims may be a part of that equation. Another idea is to push for stronger laws and policies that would shield government information from the pendulum swings of the executive branch, and give Congress more oversight and enforcement capacity to ensure agencies like NOAA and the EPA carry out certain responsibilities.

“Some people even described it as an opportunity in a way,” Kate said. 

While there are still many questions about what it will look like to shore up that infrastructure over time, science defenders behind initiatives like Climate.us and Climate Central are ensuring that the work stays alive in some form. And while it’s not an “opportunity” most of them likely ever wanted, all these new initiatives are highlighting the tenacity, expertise, and dedication it has always taken to make this information available, and the many people willing to put themselves on the line to keep it that way.

Dive deeper:

More from Grist

🦠 Nitroplast away 

Scientists have discovered something really cool: a species of algae that is able to draw nitrogen out of the air — something no other complex organism can do. The ability is thanks to a bacteria so interdependent with the algae that they ultimately became one organism — another rarity in science. The discovery could have implications for our food system and what we understand about the natural world. Read (or watch!) more

🌽 MAHA mood swing

Voters aligned with MAHA, or Make America Healthy Again, may be growing disenchanted with the Trump administration, thanks in large part to recent moves supporting pesticides like Roundup. Some have even gone so far as to say that it may change how they approach the midterms. Read more

🌊 Road underwater

Sea level rise and more frequent flooding pose a threat to roadways. California is pursuing plans to remake one particularly vulnerable highway, the scenic State Route 37. But there’s debate about how ambitious the plan should be — and whether salvaging highways is a good use of resources in the first place. Read more

🌎 And one more thing

If you want to hear more from the illustrious Kate Yoder, catch her on a panel on Thursday, July 23, exploring how new narratives can break through gridlocked climate policy debates. The panel (co-presented by Thomas Mann House and Zócalo Public Square, in partnership with ASU Global Futures Laboratory and Palisadian-Post) will be livestreamed on YouTube, and a recording will be available afterward. Register here.

In other news

And finally, looking forward to …

… a future where scientific information is both freely available and highly valued. 

🔬🔬🔬

You finish reading through the report, and without really thinking, tap the “tip” button at the end. Gia glances over and rolls her eyes. 

“Dad, you know you don’t have to do that anymore,” she lectures. “Scientists actually make a good living now, like everybody else. You don’t have to tip on every article.” 

“Oh, I know,” you mumble. It’s just so ingrained — a remnant of a scrappier time, when everyday readers actually helped keep the lights on at many organizations. 

Gia thinks it’s patronizing. But you see it as a small way of showing your appreciation for the work. 

— a drabble by Claire Elise Thompson

🔬🔬🔬

A drabble is a 100-word piece of fiction — in this case, offering a tiny glimpse of what a clean, green, just future might look like. Want to try writing your own (and see it featured in a future newsletter)? We would love to hear from you! Please send us your visions for our climate future, in drabble form, at [email protected]

👋 See you next week!