This segment originally aired Jan. 19, 2016, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.Scientists across the United States are scrambling to download and back up climate data stored on federal servers fearing that it might be blocked or even destroyed by climate change skeptics given vast powers by President Donald Trump.
VICE News visited scientists in Indianapolis and Philadelphia as they worked to safeguard invaluable climate data necessary for tracking and forecasting changes to the planet.“The task at hand is to move information from federal government websites to safe places, and when I say safe places, I mean safe as in citable for academics,” said University of Pennsylvania’s Laurie Allen.