Trump administration pulls support for annual Arctic environmental report

The Arctic Sea, 1,200 nautical miles from Tromsø, Norway, on . Photograph: Anadolu/ View image in fullscreen The Arctic Sea, 1,200 nautical miles from Tromsø, Norway, on . Photograph: Anadolu/ Trump administration pulls support for annual Arctic environmental report Move , a region that is already heating up four times faster than the global average due to the climate crisis. On Tuesday, Kim Doster, the communications director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), said the federal agency was withdrawing its support for the Arctic Report Card, which has provided environmental updates on the region to scientists and the public since 2006. Without explaining why the government stopped its support, Doster told the New York Times: “Coordination of the 2026 Arctic Report Card will not be facilitated through NOAA … All data historically contributed .” Doster told the outlet that other Noaa programs would continue to support research in the region that contributes to “national security, weather prediction, safety of navigation and the economic vitality of coastal communities”. Dismay as Trump officials to dismantle key ocean monitoring system The Guardian has approached Noaa for additional comment. Over the last 20 years, the peer-reviewed report has tracked crucial changes across the Arctic’s atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere and tundra. The climate crisis has made the Arctic the world’s fastest-warming region. In recent years, the region has experienced severe sea ice decline, carbon sink reversals and ecosystem upheavals. In the 2025 Arctic Report Card, scientists found that surface temperatures across the Arctic from October 2024 through September 2025 were the warmest recorded since 1900. It also found that in March 2025, Arctic winter sea ice reached the lowest annual maximum extent in the 47-year satellite record. Meanwhile, on land, the report noted that ongoing glacier loss contributes to steadily rising global sea levels, threatening Arctic communities’ water supplies, driving destructive floods, and increasing landslide and tsunami hazards. It also found that in more than 200 Arctic Alaska watersheds – large land areas where rain and melted snow drain northward into the Arctic Ocean – iron and other elements released 10 years. The “rusting rivers” have in turn increased acidity while elevated levels of toxic metals have degraded water quality, in turn affecting aquatic habits, rural drinking water supplies and subsistence fishing. Rick Thoman, the lead editor for this year’s report, said: “We are scrambling to pull the pieces together. 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.” Meanwhile, Twila Moon, one of the report’s editors and a scientist at the Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center, said: “The US is an Arctic nation.