Green 'hackers' rescue, repost environmental research data tools for public use

A screenshot of a rescued EPA data mapping tool.  
(PEDA website image via SEJ Toolbox)

Green geeks deploy their techy-search-and-rescue powers to help environmental science research get back online.

"As environmental data goes missing, these are times when hackers can be heroes to journalists. Meet Public Environmental Data Partners," writes Joseph A. Davis of SEJ Toolbox. "It’s a loose coalition of programmers and developers who are reversing the Trump administration’s removal of politically inconvenient data from the internet. . . . Once the data is rescued, they put it into usable form — searchable, visible, map-formatted and downloadable."

Where did the data come from? The content was originally on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, but a few months ago, it disappeared. That helpful EJScreen data tool? Gone. "Well, gone from the website of the but not from the web," Davis adds. "A group called the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, better known as EDGI, preserved the data before it vanished, and Public Environmental Data Partners set up the interface for using it. Toolbox applauds."

Public Environmental Data Partners has worked on several data rescue missions. Their growing list is here. Davis writes, "The list includes lots of Energy Department data: the Energy Justice Dashboard, the Wind Energy Community Benefits Database, etc. It includes pipeline data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. . . . And more. Not all are gone yet and not all are back online yet, but they are working on it."

Groups contributing to the Public Environmental Data Partners include:
The CAFE Research Coordinating Center at Harvard and Boston University
The Catalyst Cooperative
Earth Hacks
The End of Term Web Archive
Environmental Policy Innovation Center
Fulton Ring
Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)
Open Environmental Data Project
Rooted Futures Lab

"A lot of things containing the word climate are disappearing," Davis writes. "But they do not sleep silently with the fishes. Data wants to be free."