Online references to the climate crisis pulled down by the Trump administration

‘Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst’ is something that the Trump administration is wishing for, while scientists point towards ominous. Albeit, the administration is doing that in a bit different way, by whitewashing the facts as they stand, from the websites.

As of now, an entire section on ‘climate and sustainability’ created by the Department of Transportation has been done away with. Also, the portal on climate from the defense department is missing. Words pertaining to ‘climate crisis’ are an anathema in the regime and pulling down those is increasingly becoming a trend.

Experts are noticing the changes on the websites of several major departments, which also include the State Department climate section. It has been done away with on the White House website. Climate content provided by the agriculture department too, no longer exists. It also includes the information on assessment of the frequently occurring wildfires.

The US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy says that the administration’s focus is on doing away with the excess and prioritizing practical solutions. And the new leadership of the transportation department seems to follow that in letter and spirit. The department leadership has ordered the removal of words related to climate change like greenhouse gas’ [sic] emissions, racial equity, gender identity, ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ goals, environmental justice or the Justice40 initiative”.

Worrying scientists preparing for the worst to come regarding the climate crisis

 Many researchers, including critics and scientists are growing concerned about the growing trend of eliminating genuine information on climate and related sections. University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann, says that people should be prepared for the worst as researchers find their studies related to a number of important sections vanishing from the federal government websites.

The critics are of the opinion that these steps will only stop people from understanding the climate crisis amid record-breaking temperatures. Meanwhile, storms and wildfires are raging across the country resulting from burning fossil fuels.

“The keys to the car have been given to the polluters and fossil fuel plutocrats and they intend to drive it off the climate cliff,” says Mann. Mann hints towards Trump’s latest actions similar to Florida banning the references to climate change. He also said that Florida was the testing base for these actions and polluters as well as the administration are bent upon banning all the references.

Certain sections of the NASA website are unchanged, yet a note pertaining to something positive following in the coming years has been added. On the US government websites, some of the content has been retained while the climate sections belonging to the Environmental Protection Agency’s and the Department of Energy’s websites are now less visible.

Under Joe Biden, the federal data was restored as it had been annulled during Trump’s first term, which was about 40% of the original content. As of now, the federal data about fierce storms and floods has also been eliminated and the effect of this will be felt on the federally-funded highways, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure. These will be exempt from now onwards to adhere to the tougher standards.

The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) has also noted the absence of a sustainability plan from the White House Council which had aimed at doing away with pollution from the federal activities. To make certain moves less attention-grabbing regarding the US stand on the Paris climate agreement, Trump has also made sure that it stands.

Instead of providing direct answers to the concerns raised on the latest deletions, there is a reference review pointed out by the White House belonging to the Energy Department and that is all about the loans and grants. An administration spokesperson said, “The American people provided President Trump with a mandate to govern and to unleash ‘American energy dominance.”

He also goes on to add, “The Department of Energy is hard at work to deliver on President Trump’s promise to restore affordable, reliable and secure energy to the American people.” Co-founder of EDGI, Gretchen Gehrke, says, “It’s hard to tell at this early stage if this will be similar to Donald Trump’s first term, but from what everything we’ve seen so far we should expect a massive campaign for information suppression again.”

According to her, “Trump’s entire campaign was based on gaslighting and I do think they will gaslight the American public. The best way to do that would be to remove the authoritative sources of information that researchers, teachers and the general public rely upon.”

So little has been done to address the actual crisis looming on the climate front and the government is only interested in eliminating the websites related to climate content. Greenland which is the bone of contention for Trump is already burdened by an ever-growing crisis of melting glaciers. A vast ice sheet is breaking apart at a pace unimaginable by any means, furthering up the sea level rise.

And January 2025 is no exception, being a bit hotter than last year’s record-breaking year and that too, on a global scale. Also, wildfires have devastated Los Angeles caused mainly by human-related activities, which are also contributing to a temperature rise all over the world.

Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club is of the opinion that website deletions is not the solution. He said, “A plan for a modern-day book-burning is not a plan for American families.” He voiced concern about the survival abilities of American citizens if the information on websites continued to be deleted in this manner.

He added, “By stripping taxpayers from having the ability to access life-saving websites and information, websites and information paid for by taxpayers, Donald Trump will be putting families across the country in peril.”