Article URL: https://werd.io/climate-gov-was-destroyed-open-data-saved-it/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48897945 Points: 359 # Comments: 144

"After losing their jobs at NOAA, Rebecca Lindsey, her sister and another colleague teamed up to rebuild a pivotal resource the Trump administration took offline." Link: Trump dismantled a federal climate website. These women rebuilt it., by Jenae Barnes at The 19th This shouldn’t have been necessary, but is still wonderful to see. Climate.gov had been the go-to resource for climate data, but it went offline when the Trump Administration radically cut NOAA’s funding. At that point: This is possible because US government data is public domain by law. Had it not been available under a permissive license, the administration’s act of vandalism would have meant the data was gone for good. But because it was, the datasets can find a new home. It’s a joy to use. Check out the climate dashboard, which tracks numbers like the total area of the Arctic Ocean that was at least 15% ice-covered each September. It also hosts a set of resources for teaching climate and energy. The dataset gallery includes crucial information like the NOAA’s archive of oral histories from people whose lives were affected by climate change. But it’s also precarious. The whole thing relies on donations to keep it afloat, which is really what tax dollars are for. Still, for the moment it’s wonderful to see people pick up the slack when government is no longer doing its job. In the absence of government support, archives like this are works of journalism in themselves: ways to help us make stronger decisions. They deserve stronger support, and ultimately, we all deserve the restoration of such important government infrastructure. "Historically, the Justice Department has sought to subpoena reporters only as a last resort after other reasonable options have been exhausted." Now the FBI is doing it to satisfy an angry President. Chicago Public Media is launching a region-wide social platform as a way to bolster its journalism. I believe it represents a path to the future.