Tracking Down Data

About this episode

The episode discusses the importance of publicly-available weather and climate data and the challenges posed by reduced access to federal datasets.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and Climate Central held a briefing to discuss a key underpinning of the U.S. economy: publicly-available weather and climate data. Federal data is used as an input to weather models that are essential to public safety and helps businesses—from farms and insurance companies to airlines and utilities—make daily decisions. Historically, Congress has played a central role in directing federal agencies to collect, analyze, and report weather and climate data. But today, hundreds of federal scientific datasets and reports, like the national climate assessments, have been removed from public access, altered, or buried. Popular climate webpages (e.g., climate.gov and EJScreen) have been taken down or archived. In this new information environment, universities, nonprofits, and national associations are stepping up to fill the gaps in maintaining weather and climate data left by the federal government. Panelists shared where to look for these datasets and explore how these organizations are maintaining public access to critical information without the resources afforded by the federal government. They also described the implications of…

People in this episode

Host: Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)

Topics covered

• weather data
• climate data
• public access
• federal agencies
• data collection
• business decisions

Keywords

• weather models
• public safety
• federal datasets
• climate assessments
• data access
• business impact

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Climate Central, Congress, climate.gov, EJScreen, federal government

Places: U.S.

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