[data_dan_]

The Washington Post did some really great work on generating a variety of comparison datasets: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interacti.... You're right, though -- it's really hard to avoid the issue of political influence in climate data. None of the data can exist in a vacuum; it all has (geo)political implications.

[rurban]

Well, the Wapo is really one of the most untrusted sources ever. It's merely a CIA propaganda outlet.

Scientific research would be a try, but propaganda outlets for sure not.