Oct 30, 2025

Rebecca Lindsey

Project Director, Climate.us

Rebecca Lindsey

Photo-Illustration by TIME (Courtesy Photo)

On July 1, the U.S. federal government’s climate.gov website, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was directed by the Trump Administration to stop publishing new updates and instead redirect visitors to a different NOAA landing page. That meant everything from the site’s weather and greenhouse gas emission data and agricultural information was suddenly inaccessible. All staff who worked on the website—considered one of the most trusted sources of climate information in the U.S. with nearly a million visitors each month—were also laid off over the course of this past year. That includes Rebecca Lindsey, the website’s manager. In an effort to save the valuable resource, Lindsey has now launched an alternate nonprofit website—climate.us—to keep this vital climate data alive and available to everyone.

Lindsey answered TIME’s survey on the state of the climate movement:

What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government, needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?

The bad news is that there is no right answer, no single climate-conscious action that anyone can take that is “most important.” But that’s also good news because it means there is also no wrong answer to this question! What we need is the momentum provided by everyone—individuals, communities, corporations, and government—having a shared goal, even if we are working toward that goal in different ways. So here’s my advice: start today with whatever seems easiest. Tell a few people what you’re up to. The momentum will grow.

What’s one sustainability effort you personally will try to adopt in the next year?

Household food waste! When food waste decomposes in landfills, it produces methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas. I live in a rural area where the grocery store is a 40+ minute round-trip, so I make infrequent trips where I buy a lot of groceries. That would be OK except I don’t like to cook. I have a bad habit of putting off food prep and cooking until my produce has spoiled. It’s bad for the climate, and it’s a waste of money! I’m determined to break this habit this year.

What gives you hope about the future of the planet?

I can’t say I’m hopeful 100% of the time. I do worry that we will fail to stop global warming from reaching levels that destabilize the things modern civilization depends on, like permanent agriculture, clean water, healthy forests, and fisheries. But when I have doubts, what pulls me back from the brink is a conviction that renewable energy is superior to fossil fuels in ways that go beyond carbon emissions. Our economy already knows this; the cost of new electricity from renewables is now cheaper than the cost from gas or coal, even without subsidies. Cleaner and cheaper? That gives me hope.