The 2025 Environmental Data Purge

Halfway through President Donald Trump’s second term, the scale of environmental data removal from federal websites has surpassed anything seen during his first term. According to the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), there’s been a 70 percent increase in significant website changes in the first 100 days of 2025 compared to the start of 2017. These changes aren’t just about taking down reports—they involve removing entire datasets that show which communities are most impacted by pollution, replacing credible climate change information with misleading narratives.

Climate Information Replacement with Disinformation

One of the most concerning developments is the replacement of accurate scientific resources with politically motivated messaging. Key national climate reports have been removed, and in their place, disinformation is spreading. As EDGI researcher Gretchen Gehrke explains, eliminating evidence allows policymakers to push unverified claims without opposition. This isn’t merely data suppression—it’s rewriting environmental history to fit a specific agenda.

The Scope of Federal Website Changes

In 2025 alone, EDGI documented 632 significant alterations to government sites, compared to 371 in the same period of 2017. Alarmingly, this year’s numbers come despite the group monitoring just 20 percent of the websites it tracked in Trump’s first term, focusing only on the most at-risk pages. This suggests that the overall scale of the purge could be far greater than recorded, impacting public access to environmental and climate information nationwide.

Why the 2025 Purge Matters for Communities and Climate Action

The removal of environmental data has real-world consequences. Without transparent access to pollution statistics, climate research, and affected community data, it becomes harder for scientists, journalists, and the public to hold polluters accountable. This deliberate information blackout weakens climate advocacy, undermines environmental justice, and delays urgent action to address global warming. The current trajectory suggests that the 2025 purge could shape public understanding—and environmental policy—for years to come.