World’s Most Important Climate Website Gets New Life
Arguably, climate.gov, run by the NOAA, was the most important climate site in the world. This was especially true when it came to access to huge amounts of weather data. The Trump Administration forced it to become inactive, although the website still exists. Some of the people who helped maintain it and were fired and other volunteers are rebuilding the site’s capability and its value.
The Guardian reports, “Their effort’s new website, climate.us, would not only offer public-facing interpretations of climate science, but could also begin to directly offer climate-related services, such as assisting local governments with mapping increased flooding risk due to climate change.”
NOAA Budget
The success of the effort cannot be overestimated. Although other governments around the world had similar sites, the breadth of the NOAA site gave the climate world a nearly unlimited amount of data and analysis. The only other sites even close to as important are those from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). And, neither had what was a huge NOAA budget.
Weather websites are among the most essential tools to measure climate change. Those privately owned, such as AccuWeather and Weather.com, obtain their information from the government. They have strong interpretation skills for consumer-facing activity. Each has commercial products.Â
Is the climate.gov volunteer program a similar benefit to the climate community? For now, nothing compares.
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