8,000 Climate Pages Deleted. The Scientists Were Fired. The Satellites Are Next.

8,000 Pages Deleted in the First 100 Days

More than 8,000 web pages were removed across 12 or more government websites by February 2, 2025. Over 2,000 datasets disappeared from data.gov. The Environmental Data & Governance Initiative tracked 632 significant website changes in the first 100 days. That is 70% more than the first Trump administration’s 371 changes over the same period.

8,000+ climate pages deleted. 400 scientists dismissed. NOAA cut 25%. Two carbon-monitoring satellites scheduled for destruction. 14 billion-dollar disasters happened while the tracking database was offline.

The EPA removed at least 80 climate change web pages in December 2025 alone, including the entire Climate Change Indicators site covering coastal flooding, glaciers, drought, and global temperatures. The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool was removed on January 22, 2025, the second day of the administration. The Interior Department scrubbed “climate change” from its tribal climate programs website.

The White House climate change page, the Environmental Justice page, the National Climate Task Force page, and the Council on Environmental Quality page all return “Page Not Found.”

400 Scientists Dismissed. The Climate Assessment Halted.

On April 29, 2025, approximately 400 National Climate Assessment authors received emails dismissing them. The 6th National Climate Assessment, legally mandated for 2027, was halted mid-preparation. The assessment is required by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. It has been produced by every administration since 1990 regardless of party. This one was stopped.

On May 31, 2025, most staff maintaining climate.gov were fired. The site had been the government’s primary public resource for understanding El Nino, greenhouse gas concentrations, and long-term temperature trends. No new content has been published since. The site now redirects to a different NOAA page controlled by political appointees.

A team of about 10 former climate.gov writers and researchers launched climate.us to preserve the data and reports that had been removed. They are doing the government’s job because the government stopped.

NOAA Cut by 25%. Weather Balloons Grounded.

The FY2026 budget proposal cut NOAA by approximately $1.5 to $1.7 billion, roughly 25% of its $6.7 billion FY2024 level. NOAA plans to shrink from 12,000 to about 10,000 employees. Hundreds of probationary employees were fired in February 2025. Over 1,000 more left through deferred resignation and early retirement.

Programs targeted for elimination include all NOAA weather and climate laboratories, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, competitive climate research grants of approximately $70 million per year, and the National Sea Grant College Program. Weather balloon launches were suspended at multiple stations. Some National Weather Service offices were left without overnight forecasters.

Congress pushed back and enacted a budget $1.6 billion more than the administration requested. The fight over NOAA’s future is ongoing.

The Billion-Dollar Disaster Database Went Dark

In May 2025, NOAA discontinued its Billion-Dollar Disaster Database, the definitive federal record of extreme weather costs. While the database was offline, 14 billion-dollar disasters occurred, causing $101.4 billion in damage that the government was not tracking.

Climate Central rebuilt the database in October 2025, led by former NOAA scientist Adam Smith, who had maintained the original. The nonprofit is now doing the work the federal government abandoned.

Carbon-Monitoring Satellites Scheduled for Destruction

NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions, OCO-2 and OCO-3, are slated for defunding in the FY2026 budget. OCO-2 was launched in 2014 and rated in “excellent condition” with fuel to operate until 2040. Both missions cost about $15 million per year combined to maintain. The administration plans to decommission them and let them burn up on re-entry.

These satellites measure carbon dioxide concentrations from space. They are among the few instruments capable of independently verifying national emissions claims. Destroying them removes a check on whether countries, including the United States, are meeting their climate commitments.

The Senate draft budget preserves the missions. The House draft eliminates them. The final outcome depends on appropriations negotiations.

The EPA Proposed Ending Greenhouse Gas Reporting

The EPA proposed permanently removing reporting requirements for 46 of 47 source categories under the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The proposal drew 53,000 public comments. The EPA claims this saves businesses $2.4 billion. The program tracks emissions from power plants, refineries, and other major sources. Without it, there is no comprehensive federal record of who is polluting and how much.

U.S. Leaves the Paris Agreement. And the UNFCCC.

U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement took effect January 27, 2026. The U.S. joins Iran, Libya, and Yemen as the only countries outside the agreement. No other country followed.

On January 7, 2026, Trump signed a memorandum withdrawing from the UNFCCC and IPCC. The U.S. is the first country to announce withdrawal from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the foundational treaty that has governed international climate cooperation since 1992. The U.S. funded approximately 22% of the UNFCCC core budget. The Treasury withdrew from the Green Climate Fund board. The U.S. has stopped all emissions reporting to the UN.

Groups Saving the Data

The Environmental Data & Governance Initiative monitors 4,000+ federal environmental web pages and has restored public copies of removed tools including the CEJST, EJScreen, and FEMA’s Future Risk Index. The Internet Archive houses over 2 petabytes of archived federal websites. Climate Central rebuilt the disaster database. Former government scientists launched climate.us.

Earthjustice won a court settlement forcing the USDA to release all data behind the Forest Service Climate Risk Viewer within 7 days and release mature/old-growth forest inventory records by June 9, 2026. The Sierra Club and allies sued the administration over climate data removal in April 2025.

The data exists because people fought to save it. But a democracy should not require nonprofit organizations and fired scientists to preserve public information that the government is legally required to maintain.

What You Can Do

Call your U.S. senators and demand they protect NOAA’s budget, preserve the carbon-monitoring satellites, and restore the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.
Bookmark EDGI’s Federal Environmental Web Tracker and climate.us to access preserved data.
Support organizations doing the preservation work, including EDGI, Climate Central, and Earthjustice.

Read more on the Environment hub and the EPA enforcement rollback.