BOULDER, CO — A significant shift in climate change research is raising concerns among some University of Colorado Boulder researchers following the shutdown of a major federal climate website by the Trump administration.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program, that hosted climate reports including the well known National Climate Assessment, has been shut down and handed over to NASA to be published on the NASA website.
“The National Climate Assessment is a report that comes out every four years,” said CU Boulder Professor Max Boykoff. “In fact, it's mandated to be issued every four years to the President and Congress. It's a report that's meant to provide information on a variety of issues related to climate and the environment, on trends for the next 25 to 100 years here in the United States. And it was set up as through the Global Change Research Act several decades ago and issued its first report in 2000 and just released in 2023 its fifth report.”
Boykoff said that information also includes a local look here in Colorado.
“There are many different sub national reports, regional reports that provide information that go into that on an annual basis,” said Boykoff.
He knows that because he contributed to the report himself before.
"Without this information, it limits our ability to make good choices, to make well-informed and appropriate choices," Boykoff said. "Thinking about risk reduction in the state of Colorado is tremendously important. I mentioned wildfires, floods, risks, and heat waves."
In spite of that mandate, ABC News is reporting in April, the Trump administration announced it was canceling funding for the U.S. Global Change Research Program. ABC is also reporting all the authors working on the upcoming assessment, that was supposed to be released in 2028, were also dismissed.
For sometime, there was a note at the top of the website saying, "The operations and structure of the USGCRP are currently under review." Now if you go click on the website, you get a page that says the site can't be reached.
Boykoff worries that the loss of funding and resources might hinder researchers and lead to a loss of momentum for future generations.
"I care tremendously about the state of Colorado and its well-being, and the people and places here," he said. "I think about the loss of knowledge as a first cut to help us make informed decisions."
While NASA has acknowledged its takeover of the program, we asked about when the previous reports will be published and what happens to future reports. We are waiting to hear back.
