Arctic Report Card pullback follows other Trump-era NOAA, climate research cuts
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is pulling its support for the Arctic Report Card, a peer-reviewed annual environmental assessment the agency has helped produce since 2006, according to communications director Kim Doster. In a statement Tuesday to the New York Times, Doster said “coordination of the 2026 Arctic Report Card will not be facilitated through NOAA,” but added that “all data historically contributed by NOAA to the product will continue to be collected and will remain publicly available.” Doster told the Times that other NOAA programs would continue to support research in the region tied to “national security, weather prediction, safety of navigation and the economic vitality of coastal communities.”
The Arctic Report Card tracks environmental changes across the Arctic’s atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere and tundra. The region has warmed about four times faster than the global average, according to the 2025 edition. That report found surface temperatures across the Arctic from October 2024 through September 2025 were the warmest on record since 1900, and that Arctic sea ice in March 2025 reached the lowest annual maximum extent in the 47-year satellite record.
The same report documented ongoing glacier loss that contributes to steadily rising global sea levels, threatening Arctic communities’ water supplies, driving destructive floods and increasing landslide and tsunami hazards. In more than 200 Arctic Alaska watersheds, iron and other elements released by thawing permafrost have turned rivers and streams orange over the last decade. The “rusting rivers” have increased water acidity while elevated levels of toxic metals have degraded water quality, affecting aquatic habitats, rural drinking water supplies and subsistence fishing.
The withdrawal of NOAA’s coordination role is part of a broader pattern of Trump administration actions on federal climate science since retaking office in January, according to The Guardian. The administration has ended support for scientific research that mentions “climate,” dismantled a Colorado climate research center that Governor Jared Polis warned would put “public safety at risk,” attempted to scrap a $368 million deep-sea observation system, and removed key climate change reports from government websites. NOAA has also stopped tracking the costs of climate crisis-fueled disasters, and the administration has dismissed all contributors to the U.S. government’s flagship report on climate crisis preparedness.
Rick Thoman, the lead editor for the 2025 report, told The Guardian the editorial team is working to keep the publication going. “We are scrambling to pull the pieces together,” Thoman said. “I am optimistic that we can find a path forward for 2027 and beyond. Given the late date, whether we can pull it together for 2026 is an open question, but we’re trying to make it happen.”
Twila Moon, one of the report’s editors and a scientist at the Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center, told The Guardian: “The US is an Arctic nation. It’s not just a distant place. It’s also our national place. So many of the changes there have impacts that reach down into our mid-latitudes, even further south.” Moon added: “Even if we’re able to move the Arctic Report Card forward in a way that brings information to people, there’s still a real loss in this not being a US federal effort. That’s a real stepping back of US leadership in the science arena, in the environmental intelligence arena, and that kind of has a whole other flavor of harm as well.”
The Guardian reported it has approached NOAA for additional comment.