A group of scientists, academics and coders rushed to make copies of all climate data and keep them safe. The move was taken after several attacks were made on websites containing environmental data collected for several decades.
The group worried that what happened to Canada under the Harper administration would also happen in the US. After Harper was elected Prime Minister of Canada in 2006, scientists were stopped from taking about their research studies. Even journalists were told not to talk about the topic.
It seemed that they have reason to worry. There was news that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would remove some data from the agency's website. These were the Climate Action Plan of 2013 and how to cut methane, according to Wired.
It is possible that these were done to protect the interests of the oil industry. The previous administration pushed for the use of clean and green energy sources. This would lead reduced demand for oil. Oil companies have to lower down prices in order to market their products and this was what the new administration was trying to prevent.
It seems that this is happening in the US now. The Trump administration wants to protect the interests of oil companies and so scientists, academics, hackers and coders teamed up to prevent the destruction of data, according to Extreme Tech.
Several universities in the US gathered the best hackers, coders, and scientists to make copies of all critical data. Even if the administration destroys all websites, the research community would still be able to have those data.
The group had to save huge amount of data in just so short a time. Despite the big number of volunteers, the task could never be finished in just a few days. The team had to limit themselves to keeping just important files.
