NOAA Billion-Dollar Disasters database stopped updating; Mauna Loa CO₂ record proposed for defunding

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Billion-Dollar Disasters database tracked $2.9 trillion in U.S. climate disaster costs since 1980 (403 disasters). NOAA retired the database in May 2025 — no updates beyond 2024 (S-0032).

Mauna Loa Observatory maintains the 68-year continuous atmospheric CO₂ record that began in 1958 — the longest continuous CO₂ measurement series on Earth and the empirical anchor of the global climate-change record. The FY2026 budget request proposed elimination of the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which would defund Mauna Loa entirely (S-0032).

Both are direct, named cases of C-0019: research data infrastructure abandoned when the funding line is cut. Neither dataset is technically difficult to preserve. The architectural failure is that both depend on a single agency's continued line-item funding. Tier 3 preservation across multiple universities and institutions could keep the records readable and verifiable independent of agency budget action.

The cases also illustrate that "long-term dataset" includes irreplaceable instrumental records: Mauna Loa cannot be re-collected because the conditions of 1958 cannot be reassembled. The asset is a 68-year cumulative capital that ceases to grow if measurements stop.