Category «Climate Change»

Trump Administration Continues Scrubbing Statistics and Disappearing Data

What is the status of the official data published by U.S. federal statistical agencies? As the current administration continues its disassembling of huge swaths of the federal government, not only are the workers and services gone, so of course is much of the data generated by those employees. And federal statistical data and datasets, whether census data or statistics on the economy, health, education, or other critical public matters, are what librarians and information professionals rely upon to answer patron questions and perform research and analysis for internal, data-driven projects. This article by Robert Berkman is a roundup of where these cuts and significant changes are happening and offers alternatives to locate datasets and statistical data that are no longer available.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Economy, Education, Energy, Government Resources, Health, Healthcare, Legal Research, Medical Research

How redefining just one word could strip the Endangered Species Act’s ability to protect vital habitat

Dr. Mariah Meek asserts that it wouldn’t make much sense to prohibit people from shooting a threatened woodpecker while allowing its forest to be cut down, or to bar killing endangered salmon while allowing a dam to dry out their habitat. But that’s exactly what the Trump administration is proposing to do by changing how one word in the Endangered Species Act is interpreted: harm. The definition change is a quiet way to gut the Endangered Species Act.

Subjects: Animals and the Law, Climate Change, Environmental Law, Government Resources, Legal Research, Legislative

America’s clean air rules boost health and the economy − here’s what EPA’s new deregulation plans ignore

The Trump administration announced on March 12, 2025, that it is “reconsidering” more than 30 air pollution regulations in a series of moves that could impact air quality across the United States. “Reconsideration” is a term used to review or modify a government regulation. While Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin provided few details, Prof. Richard Peltier discusses how the breadth of the regulations being reconsidered affects all Americans. They include rules that set limits for pollutants that can harm human health, such as ozone, particulate matter and volatile organic carbon.

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Government Resources, Healthcare, Legal Research, United States Law

How to find climate data and science the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see

Research librarian Alejandro Paz and policy scholar Eric Nost, who belong to a network called the Public Environmental Data Partners, a coalition of nonprofits, archivists and researchers who rely on federal data in our analysis, advocacy and litigation, are working to ensure that data remains available to the public.

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Resources, Legal Research

NOAA’s vast public weather data powers the local forecasts on your phone and TV – a private company alone couldn’t match it

Atmospheric scientists Christine Wiedinmyer and Kari Bowen, who is a former National Weather Service forecaster, explain NOAA’s central role in most U.S. weather forecasts. They underscore why the Trump/DOGE plan to eliminate these two critical agencies and replace them with one private company to provide comprehensive weather data in a reliable way that is also accessible to the entire public, is not a reasonable plan.

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Government Resources

Climate and DEI Deleted From Government Websites, Federal Workers Fired, Colleges Erase Programs, Law Firms Blackballed, Holocaust Erased, Science Research Curtailed

Since January 20, 2025 America has been catapulted into an unimaginable inflection point. Sabrina I. Pacifici chronicles ongoing seismic events that have upended America’s democracy, jeopardized our economy, financial system, national security, science and medical communities, and fractured our national identity, at home and around the world. This is a commentary, and a guide written by a law librarian and former federal employee who was the target of a similar purge by Trump in 2018, to what and who has been targeted and purged, an overview of the process used to do so, and a perspective on the impact of these sweeping, deeply damaging and likely illegal actions.

Subjects: Climate Change, Constitutional Law, CRS Reports, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Digital Archives, Economy, Education, Ethics, Financial System, Government Resources, Healthcare, Legal Research, Privacy, United States Law

After Hurricane Helene, survivors have been in a race against time to protect family heirlooms, photographs and keepsakes

The total damage from Hurricane Helene to North Carolina – be it physical, psychological or economic – is difficult to quantify. But the numbers reported by the Office of State Budget and Management are harrowing: over 100 deaths, $59.6 billion in damages and thousands of homes destroyed, as of Dec. 13, 2024. This interview with disaster experts Leah Bright and Brian Michael Lione identifies resources for survivors and explains how to salvage damaged belongings. Bright is an objects conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where she’s responsible for the long-term preservation of the collection, including preventive care and repairs. Lione manages the International Cultural Heritage Protection Program at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute, supporting disaster response globally, including in Iraq and the U.S.

Subjects: Climate Change, Education, Environmental Law, Training

As climate change amplifies urban flooding, here’s how communities can become ‘sponge cities’

Dr. Franco Montalto is a water resources engineer who studies and designs strategies for sustainably managing urban stormwater. In response to recent flooding episodes, some U.S. cities are beginning to take steps toward incorporation of sponge city concepts into their stormwater management plans, but most of these projects are still pilots. If this concept is to evolve into the new standard for urban design, city officials and developers will need to find ways to scale up and accelerate this work.

Subjects: Climate Change

AI in Finance and Banking, April 30, 2024

This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, industry white papers, academic papers and speeches on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources, and as available, indicate links to alternate free versions. Four highlights from this post: Banks told to anticipate risks from using AI, machine learning; Banks don’t talk about the energy AI guzzles. Here’s why they should; Chatbot answers are all made up. This new tool helps you figure out which ones to trust; and AI is becoming a big deal for big banks.

Subjects: AI in Banking and Finance, Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Financial System, Legal Research

Climate change is shifting the zones where plants grow

With the arrival of spring in North America, many people are gravitating to the gardening and landscaping section of home improvement stores, where displays are overstocked with eye-catching seed packs and benches are filled with potted annuals and perennials. But some plants that once thrived in your yard may not flourish there now. To understand why, Dr. Matt Kasson looks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent update of its plant hardiness zone map, which has long helped gardeners and growers figure out which plants are most likely to thrive in a given location.

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law