If President Trump’s first term was an indication, many government websites with environmental information on climate science will change drastically in the first months of his new administration.
NASA’s climate website, for example, already displays a message about moving to a “more integrated portal on science,” with the word “climate” removed from the URL.
Some of the changes may already be making it harder for U.S. climate scientists to collaborate internationally.
David Ho, a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa climate researcher, said last week he found an error message when he tried to look for reports related to his work on ocean carbon cycles on the White House Office of Science and Technology website.
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On Bluesky, Ho wrote, “But when I visited, they’re just gone. Sad.”
Such disruptions can undermine trust and confidence in U.S. science, he said.
“Many of these international collaborations take time to build and execute,” he said. “Our international partners want to know that our agreements and policies have endurance and won’t just change suddenly because of politics.”
The U.S. has long been a key funder of international climate research, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and has pursued policies that drive international research, he said. “If those websites disappear, or if those policies change, we may not have the data or funding to pull off our international collaborations,” he added.
Not Just Climate Info
Altering or removing science information on federal websites is only part of the disruption to the U.S. science community resulting from several of President’s Trump’s executive orders. The journal Nature reported Jan. 30 that U.S. science was “in chaos” following Trump’s order to freeze many grant and loan programs that help fund research in all scientific areas.
And the administration hasn’t limited its scrubbing of federal websites to those with documents and data explicitly focused on climate change.
Duke University researcher Tyler Norris recently noticed his work on energy grid interconnection had been removed from the Department of Energy’s website.
Trump and his allies have been critical of FERC Order 1920, a policy meant to improve grid interconnection that experts say is critical to decarbonization.
“Trump’s appointees have removed web access to USDOE’s interconnection innovation webinars, including my presentation from 2024,” Norris wrote on social media. “Is interconnect efficiency…woke?,” another user responded.
“Mr. Trump signaled on day one that he intends to use all available levers to promote fossil fuels while sidelining energy technologies he opposes, and his administration’s apparent efforts to censor key technical publications appear consistent with this objective,” Norris told Inside Climate News.
Trump’s appointees have removed w