Climate.gov was destroyed. Open data saved it
After the Trump administration removed the Climate.gov website, a group of former NOAA employees rebuilt the resource using public domain government data. The project highlights the importance of open data policies in preserving scientific information against political interference.
Why it matters
It underscores the fragility of public scientific infrastructure and the role of open data in ensuring government accountability and public access to climate information.
"After losing their jobs at NOAA, Rebecca Lindsey, her sister and another colleague teamed up to rebuild a pivotal resource the Trump administration took offline."
Link: Trump dismantled a federal climate website. These women rebuilt it., by Jenae Barnes at The 19th
This shouldn’t have been necessary, but is still wonderful to see. Climate.gov had been the go-to resource for climate data, but it went offline when the Trump Administration radically cut NOAA’s funding. At that point :
This is possible because US government data is public domain by law. Had it not been available under a permissive license, the administration’s act of vandalism would have meant the data was gone for good. But because it was, the datasets can find a new home.
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