Three days ago, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fossil fuel executive, announced in a CNN interview that the National Climate Assessments (NCAs)—the government’s crown‑jewels of climate truth—have been taken offline "because we’re reviewing them."
He added, with all the grace of an arsonist offering to supervise the clean‑up, “We will come out with updated reports…with comments on those.”
These reports, demanded by law, crafted by hundreds of working scientists, peer‑reviewed, published every four years—gone. Not because they were flawed, but because they stood like mirrors to a burning world.
The administration also pulled all previous NCAs from public view, and fired over 400 scientists who were working on the upcoming sixth installment—an assessment scheduled for 2027 or 2028.
What once guided governors, planners, farmers, might now guide us toward existential disaster.
Scientists are rightly outraged. One researcher likened this bureaucratic erasure to Stalinist practices. …
