Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama is getting some help from the country's tech giants in his effort to show Americans how climate change will affect their communities.
The private sector commitments from firms like Google and Microsoft come at the same time the White House announced Wednesday a new government initiative to make public data related to climate more accessible to the public, with the goal of spurring better preparation and prevention for eventual changes to Americans' environment.
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The Obama administration thinks that local data, which may have a real-world effect on Americans' lives, will provide a convincing argument for steps to prevent climate change. The risk rising sea levels have on individual communities will be the focus of a new website, climate.data.gov, which uses government data to put environmental changes in context.
The White House also called on tech companies to develop tools for Americans to better get a grasp on how climate change could affect them.
Google, for example, is committing cloud computing infrastructure to help create maps that show the risks of extreme drought. Google's home state of California has withstood a historic drought this year that's severely affected its large agricultural sector.
Microsoft said it would award a year of free cloud computing resources to climate scientists who enter a company-sponsored competition.
Obama has pledged to renew his efforts on climate change during his second term, including using executive actions that bypass Congress. He's introduced new regulations on truck emissions and created so-called "climate hubs" that help businesses prepare for the effects of climate change.
Last month Obama proposed a new $1 billion climate preparedness fund, though Congressional approval seems unlikely, at least ahead of November's midterm elections.
Obama and his administration are also approaching a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups argue the project would contribute to climate change since it wouldn't help reduce the nation's dependence on fossil fuels.