This Giving Tuesday, Help Us Keep Environmental Data in the Public's Hands

When your neighborhood floods, you need to know if toxic chemicals might be flowing into your streets. When extreme heat waves hit, communities need to identify which areas are most vulnerable. When wildfires threaten, researchers and first responders rely on decades of forest data to understand and respond to risks.

But right now, the data Americans need to answer these critical questions is at risk.

The Crisis We're Facing

Over the past year, environmental datasets have been removed from public access. Essential tools that helped communities understand climate risks, environmental hazards, and public health threats have been taken offline. The teams of scientists and technologists who maintain this critical infrastructure have been dramatically cut—in some cases, down to a single person managing decades of irreplaceable research.

This isn't just about data on servers. It's about our collective ability to protect the places and people we care about.

What We're Doing About It

Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP) is a coalition of environmental organizations, researchers, archivists, and students working around the clock to preserve public access to environmental information. Since the crisis began, we've:

Preserved Nearly 400 Critical Datasets identified as at-risk, ensuring researchers, advocates, and communities can continue their essential work.

Restored Five Key Federal Tools that were removed from public access:

• Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool

• DOE Local Investments Map

• EPA Environmental Justice Multi-site Analysis Tool

• EPA EJScreen

• FEMA Future Risk Index

Built New Tools like our EPA EJ Grants map, helping communities track environmental justice investments from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Coordinated the Field by bringing together partners to reduce redundancy and maximize impact

Built Public Understanding of What’s Happening to Our Data with our work featured in The New York Times, BBC, NPR, Bloomberg, Reuters, and other leading outlets.

Why Your Support Matters

One advocate told us: "I use PEDP's EJScreen... I have it bookmarked. I am grateful to organizations, like PEDP, who were able to archive the data and replicate its utility."

Another shared: "We use the screening-tools.com website regularly, and it has been important for some of our work and hopefully some future analysis as well."

These aren't abstract victories; we know that the tools and data we are preserving help real communities fight for environmental justice, plan for climate resilience, and protect public health.

If you want to be part of our work preserving, protecting, and expanding public access to climate and environmental data and tools, we hope you’ll consider making a donation this Giving Tuesday to help us:

• Keep saving data as we expand our archives to address near-term threats we hear about, while making sure that data can be easily accessed by all 

• Rapidly rebuild tools when they're taken offline, ensuring communities don't lose access to critical information

• Improve our advocacy by supporting policy analysts and designers who strategize about where we go from here and make complex data issues accessible and engaging

• Maintain the infrastructure by covering costs for servers, software licenses, and technical tools we need to be an effective stopgap

Join Us This Giving Tuesday

Individual donations give us something invaluable: flexibility. Unlike traditional grants, your support allows us to move quickly when datasets are threatened, spin up new tools when communities need them, and adapt our work as the crisis evolves.

Whether you can give $25 or $2,500, your contribution directly supports the preservation and accessibility of environmental data that serves all Americans.

This Giving Tuesday, stand with us. Help keep environmental data public, accessible, and in the hands of the communities who need it most.

Can’t make a donation now, but still want to help? Please fill out our Get Involved Form and see how you can contribute to one of our committees making this work possible! 

Public Environmental Data Partners is a volunteer coalition committed to preserving and providing public access to federal environmental data. Learn more at screening-tools.com or reach out to us at hello@publicenvirodata.org.