STATEMENT: Ending Two Decades of Arctic Monitoring Threatens Global Ocean Health

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has announced that it will end federal support for NOAA’s annual Arctic Report Card, which has provided critical reporting on the state of the region for more than 20 years. In 2025, the report found that temperatures were the warmest recorded since 1990 and that the Arctic’s annual temperatures increased at more than double the global rate since 2006, faster than anywhere else in the world. The move comes as rising global temperatures fuel record-breaking heatwaves in the ocean and communities globally. ‘Wáahlaal Gíidaak, Ocean Conservancy’s Vice President of Arctic and Northern Waters, issued the following statement in response:

“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. Its rapid warming has profound consequences for Arctic communities, ocean health and our global climate. We are already seeing the devastating impacts of extreme heat around the world, and those changes are even more pronounced in our ocean, which acts as a global heat sink. We cannot afford to look away from what is happening in the Arctic, or stop measuring it. We should continue to fund critical NOAA programs, such as the report card, which are essential to protecting our ocean and keeping Americans safe.”