President Donald Trump looks focused on a mission to fast-track climate change through executive orders and other actions that are undoing progress in the fight against global warming.
This week, Trump signed an executive order aimed at state and local climate laws that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, Trump sought to breathe new life into America’s coal industry, directing government heads to challenge state laws related to climate change, environmental justice, carbon taxes, greenhouse gas emissions, or clean energy financing goals.
This move is widely viewed as an attempt by the Trump administration to increase fossil fuel production and dismantle climate change policies put in place by previous administrations. If successful, Trump will sabotage ambitious climate goals of states like Colorado, which in 2019 passed a plan requiring a 100 percent reduction in emissions by 2050.
In yet another display of Trump’s blatant disregard for climate change science, his administration has decided to cut funding for the organization responsible for producing the federal government’s top-notch climate report. This report summarizes the effects of increasing global temperatures on the USA.
Every four years, the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is mandated by Congress to release a national climate assessment. This assessment helps leaders understand the causes and dangers of global warming. It’s basically the holy grail of climate crisis analysis, guiding decisions on everything from agriculture to energy production.
Experts are shaking their heads at this move, saying it puts the federal government’s climate research in jeopardy. Andrew Rosenberg from the University of New Hampshire even went so far as to call it “very foolish” and “thoughtless”.
And if that wasn’t enough, back in February, Trump officials denied US scientists the chance to attend a meeting of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCCC).
This week, Trump also decided to slash a whopping KES 500 million in government research grants to Princeton University. Why, you ask? Well, apparently the White House thinks their research on sea level rise, coastal flooding, and global warming is causing too much “climate anxiety”.
The US commerce department made the bold move on Tuesday, claiming (without any evidence, mind you) that Princeton’s research is spreading exaggerated and implausible climate threats. They believe this is fueling the dreaded “climate anxiety” that is apparently running rampant among America’s youth.
As a result of this funding cut, programs like an educational initiative on climate change for students from kindergarten to high school, as well as two five-year studies, are now left high and dry. One study was all about predicting how Earth’s water availability would change due to global warming, while the other was focused on forecasting the impact of rainfall patterns and sea-level rise on coastal flooding.
This decision to pull the plug on Princeton’s funding falls perfectly in line with Trump’s mission to throw a wrench in the works of organizations conducting climate research.
