Dismissed scientists in the US publish climate change report — Rolling Stone

In the United States, scientists dismissed from government projects have published the first in a series of reports on the development of climate change research after work on the National Climate Assessment was halted. As Rolling Stone reports, the new initiative is called the U.S. Climate Collection and does not replace the federal assessment, but summarizes scientific advances since its previous 2023 release.

The first report in the series

The administration of Donald Trump halted work on the next National Climate Assessment in April last year. Congress mandated that this assessment be prepared to inform Americans about the impact of climate change on the country. According to the publication, the government then dismissed hundreds of scientists and researchers involved in preparing the document.

The first U.S. Climate Collection paper was published simultaneously in two scientific journals — the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and Earth’s Future. The authors examined how climate science has advanced since 2023 and identified areas requiring further study.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Research priorities

These topics include the combination of several climate threats, including heat and wildfire smoke, improving weather forecasts, indirect economic consequences of climate change, and risks to agriculture. The report states that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions increase the likelihood, frequency and/or intensity of many extreme weather events and climate hazards.

One of the lead authors, Melissa Kenney, research director at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, stressed that regular assessments are needed so that decisions are not made based on outdated climate information. Carnegie Mellon University professor Costa Samaras, who also worked on the report, said that local and state authorities need up-to-date data to design protection against floods, precipitation, and extreme heat.

Rolling Stone also writes that after the climate.gov website was shut down, the dismissed scientists who worked on it restored the resource at a new web address. According to Samaras, the scientific community is trying to inform the public about risks when the government does not provide this properly.