The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced earlier this month it would end its support for the Arctic Report Card, an annual report that features the work of many Alaska scientists and observers. But the editors of the report are still optimistic about publishing it this year.
Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is one of the report’s main editors. He said he and the other editors learned the news during a regular meeting and were not given a reason for the decision.
“This came entirely out of the blue,” he said. “After being blindsided by this, we immediately informed the lead authors of this change and began to try to think through how can we continue the Arctic Report Card without NOAA support.”’
NOAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the agency’s communication director told the New York Times that all data historically collected by NOAA will remain publicly available.
The Arctic Report Card has been documenting environmental changes in the northern part of the globe for two decades. It tracks things like changes in sea ice, tundra greenness, and sea and air temperature. More than 100 scientists,, as well as Indigenous peoples living in the Arctic, contribute to the report. Many live in Alaska.
While most of the report authors are volunteers, Thoman said NOAA provided the coordinating editor, as well as website development and video production for the report.
Thoman said scientists, educators and policymakers value the annual update, which helps them understand the scale of changes in the Arctic. He said the report also focuses on what those changes mean for Arctic communities.
“Over the years, you know, we've had essays on Alaska salmon, on caribou, on food security in Indigenous communities in Alaska during the pandemic,” he said.
Roberta Tuurraq Glenn, a community liaison with the Alaska Arctic Observatory & Knowledge Hub at UAF, helped lead the production of an essay for the 2023 report that featured the work of Iñupiaq observers.
“It was an awesome opportunity to highlight local and Indigenous observations made from people living in the Arctic today,” said Glenn, who is originally from Utqiagvik.
Those observations included how increasing coastal storms contributed to flooding and erosion in Alaska communities that’s damaged roads and ice cellars used for food storage. Observers also shared how weather changes affected where locals can hunt and fish.
Matthew Druckenmiller is another long-time editor of the report. He previously worked for UAF and is now a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Druckenmiller said the Trump’s administration has politicized climate science and that the report editors had seen a possibility that NOAA’ might pull out of the report well over a year ago. However, he said that the value of the report expands beyond politics.
“The peoples and the communities that live in Alaska don't see climate science as a political topic,” he said. “They see it as a daily reality, and it's a reality that requires careful monitoring, it requires trusted information, and it requires partnerships.”
Thoman said a massive outpouring of support after the NOAA announcement will help them publish this year’s report and present it at December’s annual American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. He said he is also optimistic about continuing the report in future years, though those plans haven’t been finalized.
“I'm very confident that there is a future for the Arctic Report Card beyond the NOAA support,” Thoman said.
