A major U.S. government website that discusses ‘climate science’ could be shut down in the wake of mass layoffs.

Climate.gov, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), had nearly its entire staff fired.

The website will no longer publish new content.

“The entire content production staff at climate.gov (including me) were let go from our government contract on 31 May,” a former government contractor told The Guardian.

“We were told that our positions within the contract were being eliminated,” the former contractor added.

NOAA’s climate website, https://t.co/rKnGnjKv3E, could be shut down after most of its staff were fired, according to a news report Wednesday. More at https://t.co/O5ePGELlht pic.twitter.com/8zDrLoxAwE

— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) June 11, 2025

From The Guardian:

Rebecca Lindsey, the website’s former program manager, who was fired in February as part of the government’s purge of probationary employees, described a months-long situation within Noaa where political appointees and career staff argued over the fate of the website.

“I had gotten a stellar performance review, gotten a bonus, gotten a raise. I was performing very well. And then I was part of that group who got the form letter saying, ‘Your knowledge, skills, and abilities are no longer of use to Noaa’ – or something to that effect.”

Lindsey said she had been worried that climate.gov might be a target of the new administration soon after the election, but when a large Noaa contract was up for renewal at the end of May, her former boss told her that a demand came “from above” to rewrite parts of the contract to remove the team’s funding.

Hooray!: "A major US government website supporting public education on climate science looks likely to be shuttered after almost all of its staff were fired" https://t.co/zELBp1Eue1

— Tom Nelson (@TomANelson) June 11, 2025

Per Newsweek:

The 10 or so content staff were supported by NOAA scientists. The site was housed in the agency’s science wing rather than its public affairs division, and was designed to maintain political neutrality and scientific accuracy, she told the outlet.

“We operated exactly how you would want an independent, nonpartisan communications group to operate,” Lindsey said.

“It does seem to be part of this sort of slow and quiet way of trying to keep science agencies from providing information to the American public about climate.”

Tom Di Liberto, a former spokesperson for the NOAA who was fired earlier this year told the outlet: “It’s targeted, I think it’s clear.”

“They only fired a handful of people, and it just so happened to be the entire content team for climate.gov. I mean, that’s a clear signal.”