Climate scientists are increasingly alarmed about losing access to essential data about the planet as the administration of US president Donald Trump pursues an overhaul of US federal agencies. This includes an effort to remove references to climate change from government websites.
On 5 February, the website for the Global Monitoring Laboratory at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) went offline. It hosts rich datasets on the composition of Earth鈥檚 atmosphere, including the rising levels of carbon dioxide depicted in the iconic Keeling Curve chart 鈥� one of the oldest continuous records of atmospheric CO2.
鈥淭hese datasets are used by researchers all over the world,鈥� says at the University of Hawai鈥榠 at Manoa. 鈥淔or research and for teaching and policy-making this is a super important dataset to understand what鈥檚 happening in our atmosphere.鈥�
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This raised concern among researchers that the data would no longer be accessible. It also came amid reports that on 4 February, staffers of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force, headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, entered NOAA headquarters and accessed the computer systems. The agency is one of the world鈥檚 main sources of weather and climate observations and research, and includes the US National Weather Service.
US representatives Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman released saying: 鈥淓lon Musk聽and his DOGE hackers are ransacking their way through the federal government, unlawfully gaining unfettered access to Americans鈥� private information and gutting programs people depend on鈥ow they have reached NOAA where they鈥檙e wreaking havoc on the scientific and regulatory systems that protect American families鈥� safety and jobs.鈥�
A loss of access to climate or other scientific data hosted by the US government would affect researchers across the planet, says Ho. 鈥淲hen it comes to scientific research, the US really is exceptional. We put more money into R and D than anywhere else, and we make our data available.鈥�
Despite the website having gone offline, NOAA鈥檚 global monitoring data is not affected for now. A NOAA spokesperson says the site that hosts it came offline due to routine maintenance at a research complex in Colorado that required a power outage, and would come back online by the end of the day. The spokesperson also says the agency has 鈥渞eceived no guidance鈥� from the Trump administration regarding climate data.
But the episode underscored the sense of anxiety among researchers that the new administration鈥檚 hostility to climate change action would extend to climate research itself. 鈥淚 just never imagined that this would ever be offline,鈥� says Ho. 鈥淏ut with everything that鈥檚 going on, you could imagine that it could happen and we wouldn鈥檛 know what to do.鈥�
Agencies like the US Department of Agriculture and Department of Defense have deleted web pages that make reference to climate change, and removed mentions of global warming from thousands of pages. Billions of dollars of research grants from the National Science Foundation to determine if they align with the administration鈥檚 objectives, which could impact climate-related research.
at the University of California, San Diego, who runs the Keeling Curve CO2 record, says measurements are continuing for now. The university collects and independently of the federal government. But he is uncertain about longer-term prospects. 鈥淭hose of us trying to keep key long-term datasets flowing have faced perennial challenges finding adequate funding support, and the challenges are almost sure to get worse in the near term,鈥� he says.
