Former NOAA employees built Climate.us to preserve climate data and resources

This may be a controversial view, but I don't think we should trust the actor in charge of regulating and limiting emissions with its own supervision. The Federal Government has a plethora of agencies which regulate pollution and energy usage; how can we trust either its legislative or executive branch to ensure that their creations are effective or efficient?

To that end, I hope the Trump administration's actions cause independent data collection and analysis by activists and independent scientists.

Re: Former NOAA employees built Climate.us to preserve climate data and resources

#5

Post by simonw » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 8:16 PM UTC

cheschire wrote: post #3

> The whole thing relies on donations to keep it afloat, which is really what tax dollars are for. Hmm. I don’t believe that’s accurate.

What's not accurate?

Re: Former NOAA employees built Climate.us to preserve climate data and resources

#6

Post by turtlebits » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 8:17 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #4

This may be a controversial view, but I don't think we should trust the actor in charge of regulating and limiting emissions with its own supervision. The Federal Government has a plethora of agencies which regulate pollution and energy usage; how can we trust either its legislative or executive branch to ensure that their creations are effective or efficient? To that end, I hope the Trump administration's actions ca…

Who is going to pay for the data collection? If we can't trust the government, what are we paying taxes for?

Re: Former NOAA employees built Climate.us to preserve climate data and resources

#7

Post by mannanj » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 8:17 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #4

This may be a controversial view, but I don't think we should trust the actor in charge of regulating and limiting emissions with its own supervision. The Federal Government has a plethora of agencies which regulate pollution and energy usage; how can we trust either its legislative or executive branch to ensure that their creations are effective or efficient? To that end, I hope the Trump administration's actions ca…

That doesn't seem controversial to me.

I wish the same were true of all federal organizations though. For example, CIA regulates itself with its own supervision too.

Other orgs do it too. I don't think they do it well.

Re: Former NOAA employees built Climate.us to preserve climate data and resources

#8

Post by sampli » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 8:19 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #4

This may be a controversial view, but I don't think we should trust the actor in charge of regulating and limiting emissions with its own supervision. The Federal Government has a plethora of agencies which regulate pollution and energy usage; how can we trust either its legislative or executive branch to ensure that their creations are effective or efficient? To that end, I hope the Trump administration's actions ca…

The only reason we have good weather data is because the government maintains stations in remote places all over the country. Who else would maintain that?

Re: Former NOAA employees built Climate.us to preserve climate data and resources

#9

Post by estearum » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 8:20 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #4

This may be a controversial view, but I don't think we should trust the actor in charge of regulating and limiting emissions with its own supervision. The Federal Government has a plethora of agencies which regulate pollution and energy usage; how can we trust either its legislative or executive branch to ensure that their creations are effective or efficient? To that end, I hope the Trump administration's actions ca…

Private companies can pay for their own data collection and if they have a dispute with the government's analysis, they can go to court.

Who exactly is going to pay for these non-governmental independent data collection/analysis efforts?

How about taxpayers pay for one analysis, private parties pay for theirs, courtrooms can resolve inconsistencies on a case-by-case basis.

Re: Former NOAA employees built Climate.us to preserve climate data and resources

#10

Post by 9dev » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 8:21 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #4

This may be a controversial view, but I don't think we should trust the actor in charge of regulating and limiting emissions with its own supervision. The Federal Government has a plethora of agencies which regulate pollution and energy usage; how can we trust either its legislative or executive branch to ensure that their creations are effective or efficient? To that end, I hope the Trump administration's actions ca…

This notion of "the government" is the wrong premise. The US government is (supposed to be, I should say) an elaborate system of checks and balances to enable self-correction mechanisms. The Trump administration has turned that into a travesty, obviously, but the system itself is explicitly set up to be split into three branches that keep each other in check, and thus supervising itself.