Trump calls Climate Change a “con job", as his administration makes data harder to find
ABC57 -- President Donald Trump dedicated a significant portion of his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to criticizing renewable energy sources and disputing the scientific consensus on climate change. His remarks included unverified claims concerning climate change, renewable energy, and environmental issues.
The president described it as "the greatest con job perpetrated by the world."
An ABC News fact check of the President's claims reveals that they sharply differ from widely accepted climate evaluations, such as those by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), considered the leading authority on climate science, and the U.S. National Climate Assessment. The latter involves input from thousands of scientists worldwide and undergoes a thorough, multi-year review process that is open and independent.
This year, the Trump Administration made major cuts to NOAA, including to climate.gov, removed the National Climate Assessment, and halted funding to regional climate centers, which were later restored.
These moves have made reporting on climate change more difficult, as the data is less accessible to the general public. Data that made the chart below -- that shows nine of the ten warmest years on record in the United States have come since 2006 -- is not as easy to find.
Climate data was once easily available on Climate.gov, which now redirects you to a different NOAA Website. The climate tools are not all-in-one place, Climate at a Glance mapping is on another website.
The First Warning Neighborhood Weather Team used climate data to produce a 30-minute climate special, Sudden Shift: How our warming climate impacts you, in 2024.
Now, there is a non-profit effort to revive the old climate website, Climate.us, with the goal to "build an enduring, independent, and scientifically rigorous platform that the world can rely on for climate communication, education, and engagement."