Trump Orders USDA To Take Down Websites Referencing The Climate Crisis

The Trump administration issued a directive for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to remove every webpage containing information about the climate crisis. The United States Forest Service (USFS) lost several crucial resources by Friday, which provided wildfire risk assessments and climate adaptation strategies, among other tools. The pages displayed either error messages or a simple message that read, “You are not authorized to access this page.”

The Trump administration continues its policy transformation through its executive order about gender recognition and its elimination of diversity programs. Federal agencies rushed to meet the new requirements, which caused them to remove climate-related content from their websites.

The USDA’s Office of Communications issued a memo that directed web managers to both archive and unpublish climate change-related web pages before a specific deadline for review. USDA officials made clear that the content needed to be archived for record retention purposes instead of being deleted. The USFS Climate Change Resource Center, along with the Climate Action Tracker, remains unavailable to users.

This decision prevents communities from accessing their vital research and adaptation tools, which help emergency responders alongside farmers reduce climate change impacts. The Trump administration implements three climate change policies, which include eliminating environmental safeguards from the Biden era alongside creating an energy crisis to boost fossil fuel development and pulling out from the Paris climate agreement.

The administration has launched attacks on both environmental resources and public health programs and gender-related services. Medical experts criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after they removed crucial information about contraception, transgender health, and HIV-related resources, which experts say endangers public health awareness.