DemDaily: Betraying The Planet

April 23, 2024

Yesterday was the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, shining a light on the status of the planet's global warming crisis and the unprecedented assault on critical climate change science, programs and funding by US President Donald Trump. Mother Earth is pleading with us to listen.

First held in 1970, Earth Day is considered the launch of the modern environmental movement. The concept was originally proposed by peace activist John McConnell at a 1969 UNESCO meeting and later sanctioned by the United Nations. Today, nearly 200 countries and over one billion people participate annually worldwide.

Status of the Planet
While the 2020-2023 coronavirus pandemic provided a brief reprieve from the daily pollution and environmental impact of mass transportation, manufacturing and energy consumption, the climate catastrophes of the last decade are a stark reminder of the damage already caused to the planet.

Climate Change is a human-caused, global phenomenon created predominantly by burning fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and gas, which release carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and other gases into the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The resulting increased temperature trends cause sea level rise and ice mass loss worldwide, as well as shifts in plant bloom and extreme weather events.

Global Warming: The last decade has witnessed the warmest temperatures on record since global records began in 1880. Since then, the planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius), a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide emissions.

Greenhouse Gases: The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, which trap heat and make the planet warmer, comes from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.

Sea Levels: A consequence of higher temperatures is melting polar ice caps, which causes sea levels to rise. The Earth's Antarctic glaciers have been losing up to 390 billion tons of ice and snow per year, fueling projections that the global mean sea level could rise 4.3 feet by 2068. The rate in the last two decades alone is nearly double that of the last century and has been accelerating slightly every year.

"Human activity is responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years." - Environmental Protection Agency, 2024)

Extreme Weather Events: Climate change disasters have tripled in the last 30 years, including extreme weather events like droughts, heatwaves, forest fires, hurricanes and floods.

Since 1950, the number of record-high temperature events in the US has been increasing, causing a shift in the seasons, with falls, winters, and springs growing shorter, while summer extends into the traditionally cooler months.

Status of the US
The United States, second only to China in global carbon emissions, has led the world in addressing the climate crisis -- with no US President or other world leader ever having invested or delivered more in combating climate change than former President Joe Biden.

All that has changed since Donald Trump, who has called climate change "a hoax," won the White House. In his previous term in office, Trump eliminated or degraded over 125 environmental rules and programs.

In 2017, he pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement -- the landmark treaty adopted in 2015 by 196 nations that ultimately aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperature levels. Scientists now predict that the Earth’s average surface temperature may climb 3 degrees Celsius in the lifetimes of children born today.

Upon his election in 2020, Biden reinstated America's participation in the Paris Agreement and restored the United States' credibility on the international stage, hosting the 2021 Leaders Summit on Climate, attended by 40 world leaders.

Trump, who appears determined to abandon, if not destroy, our country's environmental stewardship of the global climate crisis, has once again withdrawn America's participation in the global accord -- saying the "unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord is a rip-off. The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity."

According to the World Resources Institute, “The difference between 1.5 degrees C and 3 degrees C has life or death consequences for billions of people worldwide." They calculate that 3 degrees would expose nearly 600 million people to floods from rising sea levels, cut global food production in half, cause disastrous losses of wildlife habitat, create month-long heat waves in cities, lead to skyrocketing demand for air conditioning, result in more insect-borne diseases, and cause the greatest hardships for those with the fewest resources to cope.

Purging Progress on the Planet
Trump has wasted time in dismantling the progress of the Biden administration, rolling back more than 100 federal regulations and programs aimed at protecting the environment in his first four months in office.

The president, who declared a "national energy emergency" upon taking office, is guided in part by "Project 2025," the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation's road map for his second administration, which called for "a whole-of-government unwinding” of "the Biden administration’s climate fanaticism."

Their recommendations included repeal of the Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, which dedicated tens of billions of dollars to climate investments -- the largest investment in environmental justice and conservation in world history.

The president has also given unlimited firing power to saw-wielding billionaire and DOGE Director Elon Musk, who has eliminated thousands of federal employee jobs and programs in the name of "efficiency" without regard for the consequences.

Since returning to power, Trump has gutted federal agencies that oversee clean air, water and conservation, including critical programs and grants. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have experienced layoffs in the hundreds and massive funding reductions.

Agencies under every executive department have been impacted, from dismantling 83% of US Agency for International Development (USAID) projects, affecting billions in climate funding and defunding climate-related health programs at NIH, to firing 3,400 Forest Service workers under USDA and abolishing any federal office that relates to climate or environmental justice.

Regulatory standards for fossil fuels and polluting industries have been slashed, including restrictive emissions rules for coal plants and mining, while timber production in national forests has expanded.

The administration has frozen renewable energy projects on federal land and waters, issued a moratorium on new wind power projects on federal lands, pausing new leases and permits, and instructed agencies to rescind restrictions on offshore drilling.

Trump wants to eliminate the tax credits for producing renewable energy and has threatened to revoke the tax-exempt status of climate nonprofits.

Despite an onslaught of legal challenges and judicial rulings deeming some of his actions unconstitutional, Trump continues to freeze or withhold spending authorized by Congress.

On April 8, the White House issued an Executive Order aimed at “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach,” directing the US Attorney General to block the enforcement of state laws passed to reduce the use of fossil fuels and combat climate change.

Since Trump's first administration, at least 23 states and the District of Columbia have adopted their own economy-wide targets to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

The US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan group of 24 governors dedicated to climate action, responded, saying, “The federal government cannot unilaterally strip states’ independent constitutional authority. We are a nation of states -- and laws -- and we will not be deterred."

The Trump administration has banned mention of "climate change" and over 250 unacceptable words from federal literature and websites -- including clean energy, climate science, pollution, science-based, social justice and vulnerable populations.

The Political Fallout?
As with other aspects of the Trump-Musk slash-and-burn of the federal government and its employees, there is great risk to Republican lawmakers of backlash from supporters who are feeling the effects of their vote in their own backyard for the first time.

GOP House and Senate members have come under extreme fire in local town halls, the focus of angry constituents with grievances against the administration's actions -- the full consequences of which are far from felt.

Musk's plans for additional cuts to FEMA's disaster response and relief aid may not be politically prudent following -- according to the now-decimated NOAA -- a record 27 “billion-dollar” weather and climate disasters in 2024. Particularly as 17 of the top 25 states most affected were red states Trump won in 2024.

A recently released poll from ecoAmerica finds that more than half of Americans oppose Trump's actions to roll back progress on climate and clean energy solutions, including his exit from the Paris Agreement.

The survey found "the majority are concerned about climate change, with younger Republicans breaking ranks with their party’s older generation on climate concern... Americans -- including Republicans under 45 -- see the new administration’s cuts as threats to jobs, public health, the environment, and US leadership in clean energy."

An April 7-13, 2025 Pew Research poll of US adults found only 40% of Americans approve of how President Trump is handling the job – a decline of 7 percentage points from February.

DemList will keep you informed.

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Kimberly Scott
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Sources: NASA, Nat'l Centers for Environmental Information, EPA, White House, Earthday, CNN, UNFCC, The Hill, World Resources Institute, NPR, ABC, YaleClimateConnect, NYT, Reuters, Bloomberg, USClimateAlliance

The DemDaily column will publish on a modified April schedule while our Publisher recovers from hand surgery.