The Trump Administration has dismissed the scientists working on the country's flagship climate report, a move that threatens to curtail climate science and make information about global warming less available to the public.

The National Climate Assessment is the most trustworthy and comprehensive source of information about how global warming affects the United States. It answers common questions about how quickly sea levels are rising near American cities, how much rain is normal for different regions and how to deal with wildfire smoke exposure.

The assessment is mandated by Congress, and its sixth edition was supposed to be released in late 2027. About 400 volunteer authors had already started work. They included top scientists as well as economists, tribal leaders and climate experts from non-profit groups and corporations.

On Tuesday, the authors received an email releasing them from their roles, and saying "the scope of the [National Climate Assessment] is currently being reevaluated."

Congress requires the federal government to publish the National Climate Assessment every four years. The last edition was published in 2023, and underscored the degree to which climate change is expensive, deadly and preventable.

"If you are a human being in the United States, your life is already being impacted by climate change whether you know it or not," says Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist who was one of the authors of the report. "If we don't recognize that, it's simply because we haven't connected the dots. And the National Climate Assessment was one of the primary tools connecting those dots."

The next edition was supposed to be released in 2027, and about 400 volunteer authors had started working on it. That work stopped after all the federal staff who coordinate it were let go in April.