Exclusive: Climate.gov, which supports public education on climate science, will soon no longer publish new content
Eric Holthaus at The Guardian:
A major US government website supporting public education on climate science looks likely to be shuttered after almost all of its staff were fired, the Guardian has learned. Climate.gov, the gateway website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa)âs Climate Program Office, will imminently no longer publish new content, according to multiple former staff responsible for the siteâs content whose contracts were recently terminated. âThe entire content production staff at climate.gov (including me) were let go from our government contract on 31 May,â said a former government contractor who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. âWe were told that our positions within the contract were being eliminated.â Rebecca Lindsey, the websiteâs former program manager, who was fired in February as part of the governmentâs purge of probationary employees, described a months-long situation within Noaa where political appointees and career staff argued over the fate of the website.
âI had gotten a stellar performance review, gotten a bonus, gotten a raise. I was performing very well. And then I was part of that group who got the form letter saying, âYour knowledge, skills, and abilities are no longer of use to Noaaâ â or something to that effect.â Lindsey said she had been worried that climate.gov might be a target of the new administration soon after the election, but when a large Noaa contract was up for renewal at the end of May, her former boss told her that a demand came âfrom aboveâ to rewrite parts of the contract to remove the teamâs funding. âIt was a very deliberate, targeted attack,â said Lindsey. Lindsey said the content for climate.gov was created and maintained by a contracted staff of about 10, with additional contributions from Noaa scientists, and its editorial content was specifically designed to be politically neutral, and faithful to the current state of the sciences. All of those staff have now been dismissed, she said.
[...] The climate.gov site was housed within the communication, education, and engagement division of Noaa, which describes itself as âthe largest team in the federal government dedicated to climate communication, education, and engagementâ.
The website receives hundreds of thousands of visits per month and is one of the most popular sources of information about climate science on the internet. The fired staff believe the changes to climate.gov were targeted by political appointees within the Trump administration and specifically aimed at restricting public-facing climate information.
Climate.gov is set to be shut down due to the Project 2025-inspired cuts to the NOAAâs climate science endeavors.

















