Climate.gov Was Destroyed, But Open Data Saved It
Climate.gov was destroyed. Open data saved it
After the Trump administration defunded NOAA and took Climate.gov offline, former employees Rebecca Lindsey, Anna Eshelman, and Mary Lindsey rebuilt the vital resource as Climate.us. Thanks to US laws ensuring government data remains in the public domain, they preserved over 15 years of critical climate maps and reports. While this community-driven effort relies on donations, it stands as a powerful testament to how open data can rescue essential public infrastructure when government support fails.
In the absence of government support, archives like this are works of journalism in themselves: ways to help us make stronger decisions.
- imoverclocked
I'm glad someone managed to save the data that we all payed for.
My question is, how will this site stay relevant? The collection/analysis/monitoring of the current situation is as important as historic data. Turning current data into historical data takes significant resources.
- ChrisArchitect
Blog post from a few weeks ago: https://www.climate.us/news-features/feed/climateus-launches... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48689182)
- Magicrafter13
Partisan politics aside, frankly, anything data the government publishes like this should be public domain by virtue of it being published by the government.
How can the government "for the people by the people" claim propriety/intellectual-property over anything?
- aussieguy1234
A similar thing happened back in Australia years back.
We had the Climate Commission, which did alot of great work. It was a government department and fully funded by the government.
Then a conservative, climate denying government came to power and shut it down.
Literally within 48 hours, they obtained alternative funding from private sources, then rebirthed the organization as the independent Climate Council.
Many of the fired workers were re hired and the new organization does similar work to the previous one. It's still in operation today.
- Self-Perfection
What if government websites were distributed & archived as a default, from the beginning? Think IPFS as a first target for publication, "normal web" only as a mirror.
Is it feasible?
Should we push for this default?
First obvious objection is that lots of government services need backend and dynamic content, but let's say this requirement only goes for static content.
- xnx
Looks like they're not setting unique page titles. (example: https://www.climate.us/maps-data/global-climate-dashboard/in...)
Page titles should be unique and descriptive, not just "| Climate.us".
- cheschire
> The whole thing relies on donations to keep it afloat, which is really what tax dollars are for.
Hmm. I don’t believe that’s accurate.
- whatever1
With the AI rush, it all makes sense why suddenly all Silicon Valley became pro Trump and anti climate overnight.