Growl. Sigh. Rinse. Repeat.
Yet another resource that belongs to us, the US public, has disappeared down the Trump administration’s memory hole. I just learned from the valiant Environmental Data and Government Initiative that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has removed the 2024 Climate Literacy Guide from https://www.climate.gov (though a data savior has preserved it here).
Now, no one can access a fundamental federal resource that helps the public understand climate change updated and released by US Global Change Research Program in 2024.
Who needs the Climate Literacy Guide? Trump’s Signal crew, that’s who
Anyone who wishes to understand what’s happening to our world—why we keep stacking hottest year on hottest year, why wildfires are so intense, why some hurricanes strengthen so rapidly—can learn from the Climate Literacy Guide.
But some key national security officials could use a new Signal chat, this time discussing the literacy guide to better understand essential principles of climate change science, impacts, and solutions. Bonus: None of this information is classified! And if an accidental invitation is available, I’d love to join officials who notably do use Signal:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has just ordered the “elimination of climate defense planning,” scrapping years of Pentagon policy that identified climate as a major and mounting threat to national security.
Vice President JD Vance, who does not acknowledge human-caused climate change.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who again can’t quite figure out where he’s supposed to be in the (climate) conversation.
Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard, who apparently okayed the omission of climate change from the US intelligence community’s annual threat assessment report for the first time in 11 years.
Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, who during the previous Trump administration wasn’t “interested in climate change” even after an internal report showed it was a driver of migration to the US (along with driving enormous human suffering). At the moment, Miller “is more powerful [on immigration] than ever.”
No one seems to understand why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was included in the Yemen military attack Signal chat, so I propose swapping him out for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who promised in his confirmation hearing that he would not dismantle NOAA.
Literacy versus lies
It so happened that NOAA disappeared the guide while I’m at the Climate Information Integrity Summit in Brasília, Brazil. The summit, organized by members of the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition, was a next step in the Brazilian government’s work with the UN and other member states to further progress on the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change.
More than 120 key actors from governments, multilateral organizations, and local and international non-profit organizations discussed concrete steps towards safeguarding the integrity of climate information in the lead-up to the next round of international climate negotiations, COP30.
CAAD members (including UCS) clearly see that climate disinformation undermines elections, renewable energy, science, and human rights. That’s why other nations are already taking action to limit the harm disinformation can do, whether the lies for profit come from fossil fuel companies, agribusiness, and Big Tech companies that run social media platforms or search engines. Climate denial and deception in turn lead to a delay in climate action that we simply cannot afford.
Climate literacy is fundamental to climate information integrity. A public armed with that science, plus an understanding of the disinformation playbook that corporate actors keep on running, is a key pillar of defense against the corporations who profit as people suffer.
No wonder the Trump administration, intent on enacting the fossil fuel agenda, doesn’t want us to know and understand what they’re doing to our climate. Authoritarians prefer an uncritical public that lives in ignorance. Heads up—we’re paying attention and we know.
We invite the administration to prove us wrong by returning the documents to www.climate.gov.
Editor’s note: Updated to attribute 2024 Climate Literacy Guide release to US Global Change Research Program.