When the Trump administration deleted a key climate justice tool, a group of data scientists raced to bring it back online — restoring access in under 48 hours.
Anika Jane Beamer reports for Inside Climate News.
In short:
- The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), critical for directing federal climate and clean energy funds to underserved communities, was removed shortly after Trump took office.
- A coalition of data scientists, the Public Environmental Data Project, quickly restored the tool, fearing the loss of environmental health data would harm vulnerable communities.
- Despite the dismantling of the Biden administration's Justice40 initiative, CEJST remains vital for federal and state programs, with 35 states using it to identify communities facing environmental and economic risks.
Key quote:
“The CEJST here is a bit of a canary in a coal mine, right? I know for sure there are gonna be dozens of tools like this that come down.”
— Matt Price, historian at the University of Toronto
Why this matters:
Scientists had been anticipating a public data blackout by the Trump administration and were ready with a plan to archive crucial information. Quick action safeguarded the CEJST and the ability of vulnerable communities to make the invisible visible: tracking asthma rates near highways, documenting heat islands in redlined neighborhoods and flagging poisoned water supplies too often ignored.
