Trump's Soon 2nd Attempt to Jeopardize the Climate
By Molly Krupat
Published December 19th
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The first term of the 2024-25 school year just wrapped up, and fall is coming to an end. Most of the leaves have lost their colors, warmer wardrobes are starting to be implemented, darkness is falling much earlier, and the temperature is getting colder. Or is it?
First, heat ravaged October with 80 degree days. Now it's mid-November, and 60 degrees seems to be the norm. And you don’t need to read about these warmer temperatures in Massachusetts; you’ve been experiencing them.
You may have been comfortably sitting outside for lunch on November 6th, the day after the presidential election. I know I was, and thoughts involving the absurd November warmth and the fresh outcome of the election fought for my attention. It was literally a beautiful fall day, and the warmth of a sunny fall day, my favorite weather, should have cheered me up. In reality, the warm weather in place of what should realistically be the start of the bitter MA winter concerned me. The irony of the weather on the disappointing day of November 6th felt like perfect foreshadowing for our country’s questionable climate future.
Regardless of how I and many others may feel about the election outcome, it is extremely important to understand what the climate future looks like in this country.
Donald Trump will be inaugurated for the second time this coming January. He will hold office until almost the end of the 2020s, and will wrap up a decade that has already seen an abundance of controversy. The climate crisis is one issue that has evoked concerns of many voters in years past, and was again a platform issue for both candidates. The Biden administration has had a strong climate emphasis since that 2020 campaign, and VP Kamala Harris stressed it numerous times throughout her three-month campaign. But what about Trump’s climate plans? It was never an adamant focus on his campaign. Inevitably though, it will be something he needs to give attention to once he takes office. Before looking into what climate change will look like under an upcoming second Trump administration, let’s take a look back at how the Biden administration tackled the issue.
First off, in 2020 when Biden was running for president he had a climate action platform that was more ambitious than ever seen before in the U.S. The biggest thing the Biden administration has done for the climate was the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. This was signed into law in August of that year, and it is the most comprehensive climate legislation in U.S. history.
“The law invests hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy, electric vehicles, environmental justice and more,” according to the World Resources Institute.
Over the next two years the administration has made various degrees of progress in tackling ten large climate priorities. They have had three major achievements. These include the goal to decrease emissions by at least 50% by the year 2030. Additionally, another achievement occurred after COVID-19, when a big climate-smart stimulus package was passed. A last achievement has been to effectively combat super pollutants. Along with these achievements, the image below showcases other goals along with the administration's progress to successfully fulfill them.
The Biden administration overall had historic progress for the U.S government’s attention to the climate crisis. The administration helped reverse actions the first Trump administration took to weaken support for climate change action, which included eliminating and replacing previous climate legislation with ones that had less strength or supported fossil fuels.
So with this, what are president-elect Trump’s plans and policies surrounding the rampant climate concern? Unfortunately, we are not likely to see advancements in an effort to save the environment.
Since he first took office in 2017, “the Trump administration has been particularly focused on rolling back actions intended to deal with climate change” (Brookings). Specifically, in the summer of 2017 he announced his intention to withdraw the U.S from the Paris Agreement, in which 195 nations agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions in order to eliminate the most detrimental climate impacts. Due to President Trump’s efforts to run his version of climate policy, in November of 2020 the U.S became the first nation to leave the agreement (President Biden rejoined), making many Americans who stressed the global importance of climate change unhappy.
By the end of his first term, “The Trump administration replaced the Clean Power Plan with a weaker regulation” and continued to work towards eliminating other regulations that limit GHG emissions. Additionally, regulations on airborne emissions of mercury were pulled back, and storage/disposal of coal ash regulations were reduced, part of the administration's plan to strengthen the U.S coal industry. More so, the administration supported continuing use of fossil fuels, evidenced by president Trump’s elimination of bans on oil and gas exploration in coastal U.S waters and other protected areas. This approach seems to be somewhat the same for the 2nd term:
“Trump is almost certain to reinstate oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, continuing a partisan battle that has persisted for decades. Biden and other Democratic presidents have blocked drilling in the sprawling refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife” (McDermott & Daly).
Although these rollbacks and changes are being challenged in court, the Trump Administration has not always followed the law when trying to get measures passed. Luckily, “The Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law found that the Trump administration has lost 87% of challenges to its regulations, guidance documents, and agency memoranda” (Brookings). While this showcases some hope for stopping the administration's rollbacks of beneficial climate policies, it also shows how many disagreements there are with Trump's climate ideals. That is a summary of what the climate focus looked like in his first term. What will it look like over the next four years?
Well, as The Boston Globe noted, oil drilling definitely seems to be on the agenda. On Trump’s platform website, platform 15 stated in all caps: “CANCEL THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE MANDATE AND CUT COSTLY AND BURDENSOME REGULATIONS” (donaldjtrump.com). This is the closest mention to the climate crisis on his platform (which consists of 20 bullets). Ironically, his leading acknowledgement of the environmental crisis concerns electric cars, which also happens to be the product of his new best friend Elon Musk’s biggest company. To further exemplify the lack of climate concern, on Trump's 16-page, more detailed platform document, the only mention of climate is found in chapter three, bullet four under the title “Reliable and Abundant Low Energy Cost.” This certifies that Trump is more focused on the economic goals surrounding climate change.
“Republicans will increase Energy Production across the board, streamline permitting, and end market-distorting restrictions on Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal. The Republican Party will once again make America Energy Independent, and then Energy Dominant, lowering Energy prices even below the record lows achieved during President Trump’s first term” (rncplatform). Again, the Republican party platform pays very little attention to climate. This is probably because the president-elect doesn’t actually believe in climate change, and has called it a hoax in the past. He has also referred to global warming as weather (which is not the same thing as global warming), and has often disregarded expert opinions and facts.
“The fight against climate change has taken a body blow with the election of Donald J. Trump, who calls global warming a ‘scam’ and has promised to erase federal efforts to reduce the pollution that is heating the planet,” stated the lede of a NYT article. ]
Most likely, Trump will continue much of his efforts from his first term. He will probably push for increasing burning and drilling of oil and gas, which will “add four billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, according to a study by Carbon Brief, a climate analysis site” (NYT).
Similarly, he will try to “kill” the Biden administration's biggest climate condition pushing Americans to utilize electric cars. He will likely roll back lots of the climate regulations, including pollution limits on air and water, protecting endangered animals, and helping reduce power plant emissions. He now also has Congress on his side for more approvals. It is assumed that Trump will undo much of Biden’s progress, and will reject his emphasis on global warming action, replacing it with fossil fuel focus. Trump also just picked Chris Wright, a gas executive, whom The New York Times describes as “a media-friendly evangelist for fossil fuels who promotes a feel-good message that oil and gas can lift people out of poverty, while disparaging climate science,” for his Energy Secretary (NYT).
So despite all of this bad news, what can you do? The Needham High School Environmental Club has some tips:
For some background, the environmental club meets every Tuesday morning at 7:30 in the DaVinci Lab (room 101). The senior co-presidents are Kyle Railton and Cameron Cooney. Adah Rosen is the secretary and Katie Burns is treasurer (both juniors). The club has been implementing the recycling and composting programs in the cafeteria, and also works on a variety of smaller projects. They have a partnership with Green Needham throughout the year. One of the club’s main focuses is to spread awareness to students about their everyday impact. One of their current projects involves data collection about students' plastic use through buying Starbucks and Dunkin drinks, and they plan to share that information with homerooms to show how much plastic Needham students as a school use.
“We are focused on individual actions people [Needham High students] can take… and how their actions have an impact,” said Katie.
When the topic of Trump’s second term plans for the climate was brought up, Katie and Adah expressed some concerns: “My worry is that we are going to have a president that may not really believe in climate change and is not as proactive in preventing it, so there's going to be a lot more problems later that other people are going to have to solve,” said Adah.
“I feel like it may almost be repeating the past with his last term, which almost undid all of President Obama’s progress. He withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, which has affected how America treats climate change and how we’ve dealt with it, which set us really far back…he thinks it's not worth America’s money,” said Katie.
Despite the negatives that are likely to come, both girls’ also expressed some optimistic outlooks: “The hope is that a lot of his plans will require congressional approval. So maybe a lot of what he hopes to do will be prevented, and less damage will be done,” said Katie.
“We have to control the controllables. We can control what happens in our high school and what happens in Needham. We can support Green Needham and the town government,” said Adah.
The environmental club representatives also had some recommendations they encourage Needham high school students and Needham residents to follow:
“Every little thing you can do can have a big change. You can buy more sustainably or buy less. If you're able to, you can carpool or use an electric car or maybe even get solar panels…leaf blowers and snow blowers have a lot of emissions, more than you would think. It only takes a little more time to use a rake or shovel,” said Katie.
“It's good to have compost in your house. Be conscientious about what you buy,” said Adah.
Lastly, Adah restated the importance of individual action now: “Join the Environmental Club because the time is now. We can’t make any changes unless we have young voices to make those changes. Start the conversation and don't ignore it.”
Kamala Harris ran her campaign on the message that “we are not going back.”
With the upcoming presidential administration, though, it seems inevitable that the efforts to combat the climate crisis will not go forward. As unfortunate as it may be that the United State’s government will not take action to combat global warming, we fortunately have power in our own lives to make an impact. Though our power may not be great, every little effort is crucial. Think about how much you buy, utilize reusable water bottles, walk instead of driving, and convince your family to utilize composting in your home. There are so many things that you can do in your daily life to help our environment - efforts that do not need a bill to be passed or a president to enact . This is our planet, our only one, and if we want to keep fighting for change in all areas of our lives, we need a livable planet to do it on.
Sources:
https://www.wri.org/insights/biden-administration-tracking-climate-action-progress
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54797743
https://www.factcheck.org/2024/09/trump-clings-to-inaccurate-climate-change-talking-points/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/climate/trump-picks-chris-wright.html?searchResultPosition=1
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