During a flurry of executive orders signed by President Trump, significant changes were made affecting the content on government web pages and public access to data related to climate change, the environment, energy, and public health.
In the past two months, hundreds of terabytes of data have been removed from government websites, raising concerns about potential deletions. While the underlying data still exists, tools for public and researcher access have been taken down.
Now, hundreds of volunteers are actively recreating digital tools to gather and download as much government data as possible, making it readily available to the public.
Volunteers working on the project Public Environment Data Partner have already recovered over 100 datasets that were removed from government sites and aim to store a growing number of 300 datasets.
Efforts to download climate, environmental, energy, and public health data began in 2017 amidst fears about its future under a president who dismissed climate change as a hoax. Federal information has since disappeared, prompting a new response.
Environmental scientist Gretchen Gerke emphasized the importance of resilient public information in the digital age, expressing concern over the removal of vital data access tools. The need for data like climate measurements collected by NOAA is crucial for various parties, yet efforts to restrict public access continue.
The technology director at the Center for Environmental Policy Innovation highlighted the removal of public access and emphasized the taxpayer-funded nature of these tools.
Requests for two essential data tools, Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) and Environmental Justice Screening Tool (EJScreen), have been frequent. These tools, crucial for addressing environmental justice and climate change issues, were removed from access.
The removal of these tools has hindered efforts to address structural racism and disproportionate impacts on communities of color, as highlighted by Dr. Geke.
Source: www.nytimes.com
