Full Breakdown
Climate.gov Reborn as Climate.us
6/29/2026, 9:40:14 PM
Climate.gov Shutdown, Climate.us Launch
Last summer, the Trump administration closed climate.gov, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s portal for climate science. Within months, a coalition of 80 volunteer scientists and former NOAA staff launched climate.us, a nonprofit website that re-creates the former portal’s archive and services.
NOAA Cuts
The shutdown coincided with a Trump-era restructuring of NOAA, in which more than 20 % of the agency’s workforce—thousands of employees—were fired, laid off, or pushed into early retirement. All ten staff members dedicated to producing climate.gov were among those displaced, a reduction linked to the administration’s “DOGE” efficiency initiative championed by Elon Musk.
Key Figures
Rebecca Lindsey, former managing director of climate.gov, now serves as director of climate.us. Geochemist Gretchen Gehrke, co-founder of the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, joined the effort after leaving NOAA. Atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University, a climate.gov contributor, endorsed the new site.
Funding Model
Climate.us operates with a volunteer base of about 80 scientists and has reassembled the full 15-year archive of climate.gov’s news, blogs, maps, and classroom materials. One-third of its operating budget derives from more than 2,500 small donations, providing a model to limit external influence.
Official Statements
Lindsey emphasized that climate.us is built to keep climate information available regardless of political shifts, pledging unbiased dissemination without promoting policy actions. Gehrke highlighted the “brain drain” from NOAA as expertise that powers the nonprofit. Hayhoe noted that climate.us not only continues climate.gov’s educational role but also raises standard for accessibility.
Criticism
Gehrke expressed doubt that climate.us can fully replicate climate.gov’s former capabilities, citing a “quiet discontinuation” of critical climate data collections during the Trump administration. She warned that the nonprofit lacks clarity on which datasets continue to be gathered, limiting its ability to provide up-to-date information.
Conflicting Reports
While climate.us has restored the historical archive and many educational resources, sources differ on the extent of ongoing data collection. No official inventory confirms which climate observations remain active, leaving a gap between the platform’s restored content and the state of NOAA’s data streams.
Verbatim Quotes
“Trusted climate information should not disappear when politics change,” — Rebecca Lindsey, former climate.gov managing director
“[Now] we have a lot of expertise outside of the government because of so much brain drain from the government, and we can really stand up things,” — Gretchen Gehrke, cofounder, Environmental Data & Governance Initiative
“We are still not in a position to know what data is even being collected,” — Gretchen Gehrke, cofounder, Environmental Data & Governance Initiative
“The best solutions to our climate challenges are going to come from a climate literate public.” — Rebecca Lindsey, climate.us director (as told to the New York Times)
