LOS ANGELES, July 14 (Xinhua) -- NASA has scrapped the plan to publish on its website the National Climate Assessments, local media reported Tuesday.
The reports, which are legally required, provide the public with scientifically validated assessments of climate risks across the United States.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration took down the webpage, globalchange.gov, that provided the reports, which have been regularly published since 2000, The New York Times reported.
At the time, the White House said that NASA would host the reports to comply with a 1990 law requiring their publication.
However, NASA said on Monday that it won't publish the reports, as it "has no legal obligations to host globalchange.gov's data," the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The move drew sharp criticism from scientists and former officials. "This document was written for the American people, paid for by the taxpayers, and it contains vital information we need to keep ourselves safe in a changing climate," said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and co-author of past assessments.
John Holdren, science adviser to the Obama administration and a climate scientist, accused the Trump administration of outright lying and intentional censorship.
"They simply don't want the public to see the meticulously assembled and scientifically validated information about what climate change is already doing to our farms, forests, and fisheries ... and about how all those damages will grow in the absence of concerted remedial action," Holdren told AP.
Archived versions of previous climate assessments continue to be stored in the library of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The most recent report, issued in 2023, found that climate change is affecting people's security, health and livelihoods in every corner of the country in different ways, with minority communities, particularly Native Americans, often disproportionately at risk, said the report. ■
