Boston Publishes Climate Change Data Scrubbed from EPA Website

Boston has joined more than a dozen other cities to publish Federal climate change data that was made unavailable earlier this year.

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(TNS) -- Boston joined more than a dozen other cities to recently share climate change data from the Environmental Protection Agency that has been removed from the agency's website. The seemingly harmless educational tool on a municipal website has political implications that did not go unnoticed by environmental advocates.

The EPA data posted on Boston's new website, climatechangedata.boston.gov, is the same information that was removed from the federal agency's website soon after President Donald Trump and his administration took office.

The data is a range of findings from scientific research that explore "How" and "Why" the climate is changing as well as ways to combat global warming, namely reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The EPA website now has a link to the missing data once hosted on its webpage prior to the Trump administration taking office. A link at the very bottom of the page reads, "January 19, 2017 Web Snapshot" under a "Discover" tab.

Cities have led the charge on subjects like climate change and sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is a strong proponent on both fronts.

The move by the city of Boston and other major cities follows the Trump administration's withdrawal from the international Paris climate accord on June 1. The move was widely condemned from leaders in Massachusetts, CEOs across the country and international allies.

"We have helped lead the world on progress on climate action. We will not let this be undone for foolish political reasons," Mayor Walsh said following the U.S. withdrawal earlier this month. "Our city depends upon it, our future depends upon it, our future generations depend upon it, our planet depends upon it."

Chicago became the first city to share the EPA data on its website in May.

©2017 MassLive.com, Springfield, Mass. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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