Trump administration dismisses 400 authors of National Climate Assessment

The Trump administration has dismissed all 400 authors of the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated snapshot of the ways climate change is affecting life in the U.S.

The scientists and scholars who volunteer to co-author the report had already begun working on the 2028 assessment when the email landed in their inboxes Monday saying they had been “released” while the report’s scope was reevaluated.

It echoes the wording in a bright yellow ribbon that now adorns the assessment’s main web page stating that “the operations and structure of the USGCRP are currently under review.”

The report, published every four to five years since 2000, provides crucial information to policymakers, the U.S. military, emergency responders, farmers, private companies and the federal government. November 2023 was the latest report, the Fifth National Climate Assessment, and it detailed the impacts of extreme weather, wildfires and other climate-related events on everyday life. It also outlined potential solutions.

Trump had already slashed funding earlier this month for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which oversees the report’s production. NASA terminated its consulting contract with the company that supports and helps coordinate the 15 agencies that contribute to the assessment, and author training sessions were abruptly canceled, as USA Today reported.

Scientists immediately raised the alarm after Monday’s email.

“Today, the Trump administration senselessly took a hatchet to a crucial and comprehensive U.S. climate science report by dismissing its authors without cause or a plan,” said Dr. Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Climate and Energy Program and one of the dismissed authors, in a statement.

“Not having the NCA is like driving a car with a dirty windshield,” Chris Field, a professor of environmental studies at Stanford University, told The Washington Post. “Like driving with a dirty windshield, it is hard to detect risks until they unfold as disasters.”