Vital Climate Science Resource Re-emerges As Non-Profit

Climate.us launches independent website for trusted climate information

For more than a decade, NOAA’s Climate.gov website was among the U.S. government’s most important platforms for climate information for the public. At the start of 2025, if someone in the U.S. googled “climate,” Climate.gov was the top result. It served 15+ million visitors in 2024 and had more than half a million social media followers and its reach was growing every year.

In the first half of 2025, Trump administration officials at NOAA terminated Climate.gov’s full-time federal and contractor staff, ordered removal of content, and redirected the home page to a page under more direct control of political appointees. With little fanfare, Climate.gov found itself unable to continue its operations which would deprive the public of a highly trusted source of climate information. Finding themselves unable to permit this loss, former Climate.gov staff decided to take matters into their own hands to continue the site's mission. In June, 2026, they launched Climate.us, as a new online platform that will carry on the legacy of Climate.gov and even expand its scope.

A new home outside the federal domain allows the team to rescue Climate.gov and other federal assets, including the Fifth National Climate Assessment, bringing key climate information together under one roof. The Climate.gov team, which has long excelled at delivering elegant content through which the public, journalists, educators, and students could easilylearn about climate, will now build a next-generation platform expanded to serve new audiences—climate service providers, community planners, app developers, etc.—seeking data and tools for analysis and decision-making.

Climate.us is now run by an independent nonprofit entity hosted and managed by Multiplier, a 501(c)(3) organization. An advisory panel with members representing target audiences and stakeholders will guide the site’s scope of contents and utility; science and data experts will help content teams ensure information is based on the best available science. We are thrilled by the heroic actions of the Climate.gov staff and their bold, forward-thinking strategy to safeguard public access to vital, trusted climate data and services. We have provided a donation in support of this effort and hope you will too. Please visit the Climate.us fundraising site and consider providing support in any amount.

References:

Climate.gov, no longer providing climate data according to this notice:

UPDATED: June 24, 2025. In compliance with Executive Order 14303 (“Restoring Gold Standard Science”), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s June 23, 2025 Memorandum (“Agency Guidance for Implementing Gold Standard Science in the Conduct & Management of Scientific Activities”), 15 USC § 2904 (“National Climate Program”), 15 USC § 2934 (“National Global Change Research Plan”), and 33 USC § 893a (“NOAA Ocean and Atmospheric Science Education Programs”), you have been redirected to NOAA.gov. Future research products previously housed under Climate.gov will be available at NOAA.gov/climate and its affiliate websites.

Climate.us, rising from the ashes of Climate.gov.

GiveButter Climate.us Launches New Independent Website for Trusted Climate Informtion by the climate.us team.

YouTube Video, “Climate.us: independent, nonprofit, and immune to politics”, May 2025.

The Guardian, Scientists breathe new life into climate website after shutdown under Trump, by Eric Holthaus, Aug 30, 2025.

New York Times, Former NOAA Employees Revive Climate Site Shut by Trump Administration, by Quinn Glabicki, June 23, 2026.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Air pollution, Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate Costs, Climate mayhem, Climate policy, Department of Energy, Energy transition, Extreme weather, Future of Energy, Global emissions, LINKS, Rainforest protection, Reduced ecosystem impacts, Scientific debate, Solving climate, US technological leadership

January 22, 2026

Ray Rothrock: What you need to know about radiation

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Brilliant thinkers, Energy abundance, Energy transition, Fission, Future of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Radiation & LNT Rules, Scientific debate, Solving nuclear waste, US competitiveness, Venture capital support for nuclear, VIDEO

January 22, 2026

Michael Shellenberger’s TED Talk: Why I Changed My Mind about Nuclear

Published by Nucleation Capital in Air pollution, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Fission, Pro-nuclear campaign, Radiation & LNT Rules, Scientific debate, Solving climate, VIDEO, Zero emission energy

January 22, 2026

Carl Sagan on Climate Change

Published by Nucleation Capital in Climate change, Climate policy, Scientific debate, VIDEO

July 15, 2025

Leona Woods Marshall Libby

Dr. Leona Woods Libby (1919–1986) was a physicist who played a vital role in the Manhattan Project and the early development of nuclear science in the United States. At just 23 years old, she was the only woman present when the world’s first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, went critical in 1942. Her work — particularly her design of the boron trifluoride neutron counter — was essential in confirming that a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction had occurred.

Born in La Grange, Illinois, Libby showed remarkable academic promise from a young age. She attended Lyons Township High School and graduated in 1934 at just 14 years old. She then entered the University of Chicago, where she earned a B.S. in Chemistry by 19 and completed her Ph.D. in physical chemistry just three years later. She was quickly recruited to join Enrico Fermi’s team at the university’s Metallurgical Laboratory, where she became a key figure in reactor physics and instrumentation.

After the initial CP-1 experiment, Libby relocated with Fermi’s team to help oversee reactor development at Hanford. There, she contributed to resolving the unexpected xenon poisoning that threatened the B Reactor’s operation. Despite being pregnant during her work at Hanford, she concealed it under loose clothing to remain on the job — highlighting the barriers women scientists faced even at the height of wartime urgency.

Following the war, Libby held fellowships at the University of Chicago’s Institute for Nuclear Studies, Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, and Brookhaven National Laboratory. She later held academic positions at New York University, the University of Colorado, and UCLA, where she expanded her research into climate science, environmental studies, food irradiation, and engineering. Over her lifetime, she published more than 200 scientific papers and several books.

Libby remained a staunch defender of her work on the Manhattan Project, arguing that the bomb had shortened the war and prevented even greater loss of life. She was also a public advocate for nuclear energy and scientific responsibility.

Awards & Recognition

Named one of Mademoiselle magazine’s “Women of the Year” in 1946 for her contributions to nuclear science
Honored posthumously for her contributions to the Manhattan Project and early reactor development
One of the few women prominently recognized in historical accounts of CP-1 and Hanford’s B Reactor

Sources

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History (Atomic Heritage Foundation), “Leona Marshall Libby”
National Park Service, “Leona Woods Marshall Libby”
National Women’s History Museum, “Leona Libby”

Published by Nucleation Capital in Brilliant thinkers, History Timeline, History-making, Nuclear innovation, Radiation & LNT Rules, Scientific debate, Women in Nuclear, WOMEN IN NUCLEAR GRID

February 20, 2025

Global warming has accelerated and the news is not getting out: A Report from Dr. James Hansen

Global temperature leaped more than 0.4°C (0.7°F) during the past two years, the 12-month average peaking in August 2024 at +1.6°C relative to the temperature at the beginning of last century (the 1880-1920 average). Polar climate change has the greatest long-term effect on humanity, with impacts accelerated by the jump in global temperature. We find that polar ice melt and freshwater injection onto the North Atlantic Ocean exceed prior estimates and, because of accelerated global warming, the melt will increase. As a result, shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is likely within the next 20-30 years, unless actions are taken to reduce global warming – in contradiction to conclusions of IPCC. If AMOC is allowed to shut down, it will lock in major problems including sea level rise of several meters – thus, we describe AMOC shutdown as the “point of no return.”

Published by Valerie Gardner in Air pollution, Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate mayhem, Climate policy, Extreme weather, REPORTS, Scientific debate, Solving climate

July 25, 2023

A New Oppenheimer Moment

We've had a resurgence of interest in and conversation about nuclear energy since the release at the end of April of Oliver Stone's exceptional documentary, Nuclear Now. But Stone's historic film, much like Robert Stone's Pandora's Promise and Dave Schumacher's The New Fire, before it, suffers from the endemic unpopularity of documentaries. People don't flock to theaters to see them. Which made (what was called) "Barbenheimer," the culturally clashing concurrence of opening nights for Greta Gerwig's very pink Barbie movie and Christopher Nolan's explosive Oppenheimer so different. Theaters were packed. People went to see them as double-features. The press had a field day for a week and both films exceeded box-office expectations, providing welcome relief for movie theaters everywhere.

The public is, as a result, reacquainted with J. Robert Oppenheimer (JRO to those who knew him) and his tortured if heroic role in leading the U.S.'s war time emergency program, dubbed "The Manhattan Project," to a successful conclusion: creation of the first atomic bomb. Whether or not this crowning achievement by the secretive project—that recruited the world's top physicists, engineers and scientific minds to Los Alamos, a remote area in New Mexico—and let the atomic genie out of bottle was a net positive or a net negative, may still be debated. But now that it has, we must rely on our ability to self-regulate the use of this technology for good, as JRO understood so well.

We are now in the throes of sorting out how best to limit nuclear bombs but expand the beneficial uses of atomic tech for energy, industry, agriculture and medicine. Which is why we were so pleased to have been connected with Charles Oppenheimer some weeks ago and to have been invited to participate in the Oppenheimer Exchanges, a day long event bringing together leadership from within the DOE's National Labs and a few business groups, orchestrated to coincide with opening night for the Oppenheimer film. Fortunately, this included tickets to the San Francisco premiere at the Metreon iMax Theatre and a brief pre-screening conversation between younger members of the Oppenheimer family, who provided some perspective on the family's legacy and ongoing initiatives.

For many of us, this was an eye-opening discussion. It was just in December of 2022, that the DOE finally restored Oppenheimer’s long lost—but still widely lauded reputation—with an order vacating the Atomic Energy Commission's 1954 decision to revoke JRO's security clearance. While largely symbollic, since JRO died in 1967, the DOE's order, and Secretary Granholm's Statement about it, addressed and began to reverse the damage that had been done to the Oppenheimer name, through what the DOE called a "flawed" process.

In 1954, the Atomic Energy Commission revoked Dr. Oppenheimer’s security clearance through a flawed process that violated the Commission’s own regulations. As time has passed, more evidence has come to light of the bias and unfairness of the process that Dr. Oppenheimer was subjected to while the evidence of his loyalty and love of country have only been further affirmed. The Atomic Energy Commission even selected Dr. Oppenheimer in 1963 for its prestigious Enrico Fermi Award citing his “scientific and administrative leadership not only in the development of the atomic bomb, but also in establishing the groundwork for the many peaceful applications of atomic energy.”

Among scientists and those who knew Oppenheimer's legacy, vindication had already begun as far back as 1963, when the Atomic Energy Commission selected Oppenheimer for the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award for his "scientific and administrative leadership not only in the development of the atomic bomb, but also in establishing the groundwork fo rthe many peaceful applications of atomic energy."

Then, in 2017, the DOE recognized JRO with the creation of the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program, which was designed to support early and mid-career scientists and engineers to "carry on [RJO's] legacy of science serving society."

This DOE program has now graduated multiple cohorts. Many of these alumni gathered in San Francisco to discuss the Oppenheimer legacy and explore relevant topics, in particular the need for science and scientists to rise to the challenge of solving global crises with technology. Oppenheimer's leadership example is a model by which the scientific community can organize itself to tackle problems, such as climate change. Given how badly we are doing responding to the threat posed by climate change, this is a very welcome concept.

The Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program (OSELP) run by the DOE is “the premier leadership development program of the national Laboratory Directors’ Council, which comprises the leadership of all 17 National Labs. The program exposes emerging leaders to the singular breadth, diversity and complexity of the National Labs and their partners in government, industry, and academia. OSELP represents a collective commitment from all 17 DOE labs to cultivate the leaders needed to sustain long-term impacts throughout the complex. Out of the OSELP has grown an alumni group now called the Oppenheimer Leadership Network, who are those who have been through the OSELP program. The OLN is the formal network of ESELP alumni to collaboratively engage on strategic issues and produce deliverables that address major organizational, policy, scientific or other challenges within the National Labs’ mission space. We were pleased to meet many members of the OLN at the event. Now the Oppenheimer family has a new vision. They are aiming to develop several initiatives, under the banner of The Oppenheimer Project, whose mission is to promote and advocate for solutions to mitigate the risks posed by technological development. 1) Promote JRO’s legacy and encourage scientific leaders to discuss and address today’s existential threats.2) Advocate and educate about nuclear energy, for increased cooperation on energy and decreased threats of weapons.3) Invest in the energy transition to carbon-free energy sources including nuclear energy. Already, Charles Oppenheimer, JRO's grandson, has come out strongly for nuclear power in a Time Magazine Ideas article, entitled Nuclear Energy's Moment Has Come, published May 11, 2023. In it, Charles calls for a "Manhattan Project" for carbon-free energy production.

In addition to having the support of the younger members of the Oppenheimer family, The Oppenheimer Project has received the support of Lynn Orr, a former Under Secretary for Science and Energy at the DOE and now at Stanford University, and Dr. Larry Brilliant, a physician, epidemiologist and senior counselor at the Skoll Foundation, as advisers. There are now some dozens of graduates of the OSELP and OLN members who could also participate. Given how poorly we are doing mounting the appropriate response to the threat from continued emissions, extending Oppenheimer's inimitable complex project management legacy to tackling this new global challenge has the potential to be significant development in the fight against climate change.

March 26, 2023

Eunice Newton Foote

Eunice Newton Foote, a descendant of Sir Isaac Newton through her father, is believed to be the first scientist to study and conclude that rising carbon dioxide gas levels could raise atmospheric temperatures and impact the earth's climate. Up until 2010, scientists had believed that John Tyndall deserved the credit as the first person to show the involvement of infrared radiation in the greenhouse effect. Although Foote published the results of her experiments as early as 1856, demonstrating the absoprtion of heat by CO2 and water vapor and her hypothesis that changing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere would alter the climate and despite this being possibly the very first physics publication by an American woman in a scientific journalI wasn't until her work was rediscovered in 2010 that she was recognized as the pioneer that she was.

Eunice Foote was born in Connecticut in 1819 and was a scientists, inventor, mother and women's rights campaigner. After marrying Elisha Foote in 1841, Foote settled in Seneca, where she met and befriended Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was the daughter of Judge Daniel Cady, who was the attorney who had trained Elisha Foote in the law. Although she attended the Rensselaer School and gained a broad education in scientific theory and practice, including laboratory testing, she was denied access to further studies.

From Wikipedia:

Eunice Foote – "Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun's Rays" (1856), American Journal of Science and Arts. Foote recognized the implications of carbon dioxide's heat-capturing properties—the greenhouse effect—for the entire planet.

An amateur scientist, Foote conducted a series of experiments that demonstrated the interactions of sunlight on different gases. She used an air pump, two glass cylinders, and four mercury-in-glass thermometers. In each cylinder, she placed two thermometers and then used the pump to evacuate the air from one cylinder and compress it in the other cylinder. When both cylinders reached equal ambient temperatures, they were placed in the sunlight and temperature variances were measured. She also placed the containers in the shade for comparison and tested the temperature results by dehydrating one cylinder and adding water to the other, to measure the effect of dry versus moist air. Foote noted that the amount of moisture in the air impacted the temperature results. She performed this experiment on air, carbon dioxide (CO₂) (which was called carbonic acid gas in her era), and hydrogen, finding that the tube filled with carbon dioxide became hotter than the others when exposed to sunlight.

She wrote: "The receiver containing this gas became itself much heated—very sensibly more so than the other—and on being removed [from the Sun], it was many times as long in cooling".

Foote noted that CO₂ reached a temperature of 125 °F (52 °C) and that the amount of moisture in the air contributed to temperature variances. In connection with the history of the Earth, Foote theorized that "An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature; and if, as some suppose, at one period of its history, the air had mixed with it a larger proportion than at present, an increased temperature from its own action, as well as from increased weight, must have necessarily resulted." Her theory was a clear statement of climatic warming caused by increased levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Foote described her findings in a paper, "Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun's Rays", that she submitted for the tenth annual AAAS meeting, held on August 23, 1856, in Albany, New York. For reasons that are unclear, Foote did not read her paper to those present—women were in principle allowed to speak publicly at the conference—and her paper was instead presented by Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution. Henry introduced Foote's paper by stating "Science was of no country and of no sex. The sphere of woman embraces not only the beautiful and the useful, but the true". Yet, he discounted her findings in the New-York Daily Tribune article about the presentation, saying "although the experiments were interesting and valuable, there were [many] [difficulties] encompassing [any] attempt to interpret their significance".

_______________

Sources:

Wikipedia: Eunice Newton Foote
BBVA OpenMind: Eunice Newton Foote, the Forgotten Pioneer of the Greenhouse Effect, Mar. 8, 2022

Published by editor in Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Climate change, History Timeline, History-making, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear R&D, Scientific debate, Women in Nuclear, WOMEN IN NUCLEAR GRID

November 23, 2022

Giving Thanks & Acknowledging All We Stand to Lose

anksgiving isn't typically a time for making investment decisions . . . but it should be. Americans honor our country's beauty and bounty in many ways—most notably through the national holiday actually called "Thanksgiving," which celebrates the abundance of the land we inherited centuries ago. We feast on turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries and other delicious indigenous foods that sustained early pilgrims. Now, that abundance and beauty is at risk—as are all societal systems and traditions—as we now know that our lifestyles are simply not sustainable in their present configuration.

If we want the Thanksgiving tradition to survive, we cannot afford to ignore the forced heating impacts that the CO2 waste from our high-energy lives is having on the climate. So, in addition to celebrating Thanksgiving, we should take the opportunity to focus on the intergenerational threat we face, which we can do by acknowledging that fossil fuels are the wrong energy for the 21st century and investing in energy solutions that eliminate new emissions and also repair the damage already done by removing emissions previously released. This would be the best way to honor what we've enjoyed for so long, give thanks and do our part in leaving the world with a sustainable climate for our childrento enjoy.

Screenshot 2025 07 10 at 11.30.06 am There are many challenges for humanity. The heating we've caused our planet is something we must urgently address but doing so isn't as easy as it seems. People love to celebrate happy holidays and gather over delicious feasts and feel good. It is another thing altogether to ask people to focus on negative issues, things that worry and stress us out, such as acknowledging that our dumping of fossil fuel waste into the atmosphere has dramatically disrupted the natural ecosystems which have long supported us. This is contrary to our nature, as we prefer celebrations to crises. But if we build into the Thanksgiving tradition the practice of honoring the bounties of nature that we have enjoyed and objectively assessing how much damage we have done to them and then finding ways to remedy that damage, we stand a better chance of reversing the damage by accelerating climate solutions.

Given the scale of the climate problem, it is not sufficient to try to address it with personal actions such as turning down the heat, recyling, composting or even buying an electric car. These things are good to do but will not solve the problem. The only way to do that is to reduce and then eliminate fossil fuels emissions, which are still being released in the gigatons. We are running out of time to act, so rather than take modest personal actions, we must seek to find things that we can do that provide greater leverage. It turns out that our greatest point of leverage is in nvesting into the innovations that can disrupt demand for fossil fuels. Why innovation? Because to date, there hasn't been a form of clean energy that competes head to head with fossil fuels. If we want to have a hope of eliminating our need for coal, oil, petroleum and natural gas, we need a clean, carbon-free and highly reliable replacement for it that the market can adopt super quickly.

Increasingly, people are recognizing that this future energy will come in a form of nuclear power. Only nuclear has the ability to address our growing demand for energy at scale and not force humanity to go cold turkey on highly reliable power (as would wind and solar, which are intermittent sources) or the quality of life that we have enjoyed as a result of the abundance of high-density fossil fuels. Fortunately, nuclear is a far better option! But several decades of languishing by the industry has caused 21st century nuclear to be delayed. We now need to invest in hastening the release of Gen IV designs and the supply and support services necessary to enable it to scale to replace all fossil fuels usage.

This is what Nucleation Capital is doing. Providing an investment vehicle that invests in advanced nuclear and related deep decarbonization innovations that allows more investors to invest in some of the most exciting, most competitive clean energy alternatives coming out of the advanced nuclear sector. These designs will compete directly with fossil fuels and, because of the urgency of our climate situation, as soon as they are available, the world will begin to replace their use of fossil fuels with this superior type of clean, reliable, dense energy and ecologically friendly energy. Which is why, for those looking for impactful investments that are off the beaten path and which, by their nature, can produce extraordinary returns, nothing can beat nuclear energy innovation.

So, if you'd like to do far more than just give thanks with your turkey, consider investing in the innovations that would allow us to end our dependence on fossil fuels. We expect that, over the next decade, the nations of the world will begin deploying any number of advanced designs to power cities, factories, campuses, ships, industry and homes without emissions, thereby maintaining energy security and grid reliability without needing fossil fuels. We'll even use nuclear to generate synthetic hydrocarbons (for where liquid fuels are still needed) and power CO2 and atmospheric carbon drawdown to begin to reverse the level of forced heating causing global warming.

Yes, investing in advanced nuclear is high risk. Yet not solving climate change poses the greatest risks of all, in that everyone risks losing everything we hold dear. Our property, our nest eggs, our children's happiness and comfort, and our traditions. Which is why more investors are considering allocating a portion of their investible capital to investments that can meaningfully reduce demand for fossil fuels. Whether they can invest a lot or little doesn't matter so much: they will still get the satisfaction of knowing that they are using their money to make a difference in the final years that we have to rescue our future.

* The "Th" image above is the period table symbol for the element Thorium, and comes curtesy of the Thorium Energy Alliance, which advocates for the use of thorium along with uranium as a fuel for nuclear energy.

September 15, 2022

DOE to Study Low Energy Nucelar Reactions

The U.S. Department of Energy Announces Up to $10 Million to Study Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions

ARPA-E will apply scientific and rigorous approach to a new exploratory topic focused on a specific type of nuclear energy, which still is not officially named, mainly because the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. 2/17/23 UPDATE: The DOE has selected 8 projects to fund.

The DOE announced this news through a press released posted to the ARPA-E website with little fanfare on September 13, 2022. Because of presentations made back in July at the ICCF24 conference, we knew this was coming and we are excited that it is finally official. The brief announcement reads:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $10 million in funding to establish clear practices to determine whether low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) could be the basis for a potentially transformative carbon-free energy source. The funding is part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) LENR Exploratory Topic, which aims to break the stalemate of research in this space.

“ARPA-E is all about risk and exploring where others cannot go, which is why we’ve set out with this LENR Exploratory Topic to conclusively answer the question ‘should this field move forward, or does it not show promise?’” said ARPA-E Acting Director and Deputy Director for Technology Dr. Jenny Gerbi. “We look forward to seeing the intrepid teams that come forward to approach this field of study with new perspectives and state-of-the-art scientific and technical capabilities.”

LENR Exploratory Topic awardees will pursue hypotheses-driven approaches toward producing publishable evidence of LENR in top-tier scientific journals by testing/confirming specific hypotheses (rather than focusing only on replication), identifying and verifying control of experimental variables and triggers, supporting more comprehensive diagnostics and analysis, and improving access to broader expertise and capabilities on research teams.

As of mid-February, the DOE has now selected 8 teams to fund. Click here to learn more about the funded projects.

— — — — — — — — —

See ARPA-E, U.S. Department of Energy Announces Up to $10 Million to Study Low-Energy Nuclear Reactors, September 13, 2022. ARPA-e Update of February 17, 2023, U.S. Department of Energy Announces $10 Million in Funding to Projects Studying Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions: ARPA-E Selects 8 Projects to Apply Scientific and Rigorous Approach Focused on Specific Type of Nuclear Energy.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Climate change, Energy abundance, Future of Energy, History Timeline, International support for nuclear, Investor activity, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear R&D, Scientific debate, US competitiveness, Zero emission energy