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The Trump administration on Monday shut down a federal website that presented mandated reports and climate change research, drawing replies from scientists who said it would hinder the country’s efforts to prepare for worsening drought, floods and heat waves.
GlobalChange.gov, the US Global Change Research Program website, has been removed along with all five versions of the National Climate Assessment Report and extensive information on how global warming is affecting the country.
“They’re public documents, and at worst they’re scientific censorship,” said Peter Glick, a California water and climate scientist, who was one of the authors of 2000’s first national climate assessment.
Climate reports have been requested by Congress, and there are still alternative ways to find them without a website, Gleick said. “But this information will become increasingly difficult for Americans to find.”
The White House did not immediately provide any comments regarding the removal of the website.
In May, Trump signed an executive order, signing that his administration is “committed to restoring the gold standard of science to ensure federally funded research is transparent and rigorous,” and informed by “the most reliable, reliable and unbiased scientific evidence.”
The president cited examples related to climate science, saying that federal agencies previously used “worst scenarios” of warming “on the very unlikely assumptions.”
The US Global Change Research Program was established under the Act of 1990 and required that climate assessments be prepared every four years. However, in April, the Trump administration rejected hundreds of scientists and other experts who began writing the latest National Climate Assessment Report.
“This is scientific information paid by American taxpayers, and it’s their right to have it,” said Katherine Hayho, a climate scientist at Texas Tech, who was author of four versions of the Climate Assessment Report. “As a scientist, I can say that anyone who is a farmer, homeowner, business owner, mayor, or anyone who wants to ensure a safe and resilient future for themselves and their children is absolutely crucial to making good decisions for their future.”
Hayhoe noted that the 1990 law requires that the program’s findings be available to all federal agencies and sectors, and that national climate assessments are available digitally.
Hayhoe said many of the website’s resources include interactive atlas of predicted changes in hot and cold days, rainfall, and other impacts per degree of warming.
“Climate changes faster than ever in human history, and we know that if we don’t adapt, we’ll suffer from consequences if we don’t build resilience in all our systems, such as food and water systems, infrastructure and health systems,” Hayhoe said.
She said the national climate assessment helped “fill the physiological distance” for Americans.
“It tells people in your area. There’s something already happening here. What’s going on here, and how it affects your home, your insurance premiums, your water, food, the animals you see around you,” she said.
Until Monday, the website GlobalChange.gov has made more than 200 publications available. They included annual reports of research programs to Congress and research into Arctic, agriculture and human health. Some were republished reports from other organizations, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The GlobalChange.gov website, shown on June 29, 2025, was deleted the following day.
The site also hosted numerous web pages, educational podcasts and videos on topics such as sea level rise, greenhouse gases, biodiversity, and drought.
The top item on the homepage is the fifth National Climate Assessment, described as “a outstanding source of authoritative information on the risks, impacts and responses to US climate change.”
However, the Trump administration has cut funding for the US Global Change Research Program, which oversees the assessment.
Around April 10th, a small yellow banner appeared at the top of the site, reading: [U.S. Global Change Research Program] Currently under review. ”
Previous versions of the website can still be found using the Wayback machine in the non-commercial Internet Archives.
The website closure comes after the Trump administration overthrew Climate.gov, another site maintained by the National Maritime and Atmospheric Administration. It happened after many of the staff who worked on the site were reportedly rejected. (The Climate.gov website now redirects users to NOAA.gov/clime.)
Gleick said the new NOAA website is a “slightly alternative” to the extensive information previously available. He said he believes the removal of websites with scientific research into global warming caused by rising levels of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases is intended to hide risks from the public.
Hayhoe and other climate scientists have said they still don’t know what the Trump administration’s plan for reporting needed in the next Congress, following the firing of the team that was working on the sixth National Climate Assessment.
“The deeper threat to this country is not to make the new assessments necessary to understand the latest research into climate threats to the country,” Gleick said. “Climate-related people don’t have an assessment of their value or importance, and they appear to be cut into bones or completely eliminated.”
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