This NPR Planet Money Indicator podcast episode interviews Adam Smith, a climatologist, about the retirement of NOAA's Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters Database, which he spearheaded. The database, launched in 1980 and significantly expanded under Smith's leadership, tracked the economic impact of billion-dollar weather disasters. The interview discusses the database's creation, its uses by government and individuals, the challenges in accurately capturing all economic losses (including non-market losses like health impacts), recent criticism of the database's methodology, and the reasons for its discontinuation, attributed to budget cuts and shifting priorities within the new administration. Smith expresses his desire to continue this type of analysis through other avenues, acknowledging the difficulties in replicating the database without continued access to federal data sets.
