Data Sources & Methodology

How Nurture sources every public dataset and instrument it uses — with citations and explicit limitations.

About this page

What this page does: Documents every public dataset and instrument Nurture uses, with citations and limitations.

Who this helps: Researchers, journalists, educators, and curious users verifying claims.

Key data sources: Yale & George Mason CCAM (Fall 2025); EPA AQS; NASA/NOAA VIIRS; Climate Anxiety Scale (Clayton, 2020); Kricorian et al. (2025) PLOS Climate

Important limitations: Comparisons use published aggregate percentages, not respondent-level raw data; EPA AQS lags by ~1 year

Suggested next step: See the Site Updates & Editorial Notes log

About this page

What this page does: Lists every public dataset and instrument Nurture relies on.

Who this helps: Researchers, educators, and users verifying methodology.

Key data sources: Yale & George Mason CCAM (Fall 2025); Climate Anxiety Scale (Clayton, 2020); EPA AQS; NASA/NOAA VIIRS

Important limitations: Aggregate-only comparisons; EPA AQS data lag (~1 year)

Suggested next step: Read about Nurture's mission

Climate-opinion comparisons

The Climate Opinion Comparison feature compares your responses against weighted aggregate results from Yale and George Mason's Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Fall 2025, a national survey of U.S. adults age 18+ conducted November 6–14, 2025.

What we use: published percentages from the Yale/GMU report. What we do not use: respondent-level raw survey data. We do not, and cannot, claim that a single user's profile statistically matches any specific subgroup in the survey.

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication — publications

Climate Anxiety Assessment

The assessment uses the validated 13-question Climate Anxiety Scale (CAS, 2020) by Dr. Susan Clayton. The CAS measures two dimensions: cognitive-emotional impairment and functional impairment. Score interpretation follows thresholds established in the original validation literature.

Citation: Clayton, S., & Karazsia, B. T. (2020). Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 69, 101434.

Air quality (EPA AQS)

Air-quality data comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality System (AQS). EPA AQS reporting lags by approximately one year, so Nurture queries the most recent full calendar year of validated data. Readings reflect that period, not current conditions.

EPA Air Quality System (AQS)

Light pollution (NASA/NOAA VIIRS)

Light-pollution measurements use VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) Day/Night Band satellite data via the Earth Observation Atlas, retrieved through a server-side function so the underlying scientific dataset is queried directly.

VIIRS nighttime lights data

Other environmental indicators

Additional hazards (where shown) are sourced from official government and peer-reviewed scientific datasets. Nurture does not use simulated or dummy data for environmental features. New sources and any corrections are logged on the Site Updates & Editorial Notes page.

Site Updates & Editorial Notes

What Nurture does and does not claim

  • Nurture is an educational and informational climate wellness resource based on peer-reviewed research.
  • Nurture is not a diagnostic tool, mental-health treatment, or substitute for a qualified professional.
  • Comparison features show how your inputs relate to published aggregate data — not to individual respondents and not as a clinical benchmark.
  • Local environmental readings reflect the most recent fully reported period from the underlying public dataset, not real-time conditions.