President Trump has embarked on a deliberate and systematic dismantling of half a century of environmental progress, waging an unprecedented war on policies designed to protect humanity, the planet and mitigate climate change. With a sweeping set of executive orders, regulatory rollbacks, and a renewed embrace of fossil fuel extraction and exploitation, his administration has turned back the clock on environmental protections, undoing decades of bipartisan efforts.
From his first day back in office, President Trump made it clear that environmental safeguards would be among the first casualties of his second term. With the stroke of a pen, he issued the "Unleashing American Energy" order, which dismantled the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, eliminating a key mechanism that quantified the long-term damages of greenhouse gas emissions. By revoking climate-related strategies and reports, his administration effectively erased the federal government's acknowledgment of climate change’s economic and health consequences, reducing it to a non-issue in policy discussions. This move blatantly ignores the U.S. EPA’s 2008 “endangerment finding,” which follows from the U.S. Supreme Court 2007 finding that GHG’s are pollutants and, therefore, must be controlled.
But these actions were only the beginning. President Trump has thrown the full weight of his administration behind the natural resource extraction industry, paving the way for oil, gas, and coal expansion, as well as national forest destruction, at an unprecedented scale. His Department of the Interior announced plans to open nearly all U.S. coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, marking the largest expansion of offshore leasing in history. In an even more controversial move, the administration greenlit full-scale drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last untouched wilderness areas in America, despite opposition from environmental groups and Indigenous communities. To make matters even worse, on March 1, 2025, President Trump threw open the door to the effective decimation of the country’s national forests.
Trump’s environmental agenda is not merely a push for increased fossil fuel extraction—it is a deliberate and systematic dismantling of the very protections that safeguard our air, water, and ecosystems. His administration is not just loosening regulations; it is gutting every safeguard designed to curb pollution, protect vital water systems, and preserve fragile natural habitats—with consequences that will accelerate the destruction of critical plant and animal species and irreversibly alter the natural world.
Under the guise of "economic growth," Trump has turned environmental deregulation into a weapon, relentlessly targeting long-standing protections. Alarmingly, he has set his sights on America’s national forests, paving the way for unprecedented logging that will decimate biodiversity, accelerate deforestation, and undermine the natural carbon sinks that help stabilize our climate. This is not simply a rollback of regulations—it is an all-out assault on the fundamental protections that keep our planet livable, pursued in the name of short-term profits while sacrificing the health of future generations.
Beyond rolling back critical policies and regulatory initiatives, the Trump administration has taken an even more insidious step: erasing climate data and suppressing science. Scientists and environmental advocates have sounded the alarm as the administration removes critical climate change research, fact sheets, and data tools from federal websites, limiting public access to information and impeding research efforts. This suppression of climate science and public access to critical data signals a broader strategy to obscure the reality of climate change, ensuring that future policy discussions are shaped not by facts, but by political ideology.
On the global stage, President Trump has crippled America’s credibility as a leader in climate action, cementing the nation’s retreat from its environmental responsibilities. By doubling down on his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, he has not only abandoned the world’s most crucial climate accord but has also severed the United States from the collective efforts to combat global warming.
As the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter—and the single greatest contributor when measured on a consumption basis—the U.S. bears an outsized responsibility for the unfolding climate catastrophe. Yet, under Trump's leadership, The U.S. has chosen to stand apart rather than stand accountable, ensuring that future generations will look back on this moment as one where America actively turned its back on the world.
This retreat from climate diplomacy is more than just a policy shift—it is a profound abdication of leadership. It does not merely weaken global momentum; it signals to the international community that the United States no longer has the will—or the moral authority—to lead. At a time when unity and decisive action are most needed, Trump's policies have not just isolated America—they have made it complicit in the devastation that will define the next century
The consequences of Trump’s environmental policies are both immediate and devastating, with impacts that will reverberate for generations. Experts warn that under his leadership, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will skyrocket, reversing years of hard-won progress in curbing climate pollution. By 2035, emissions are projected to surge, undoing efforts to transition toward cleaner energy. According to the Rhodium Group, Trump’s rollback of major climate policies could add approximately 1.8 gigatons of GHG emissions to the atmosphere by 2035—thus obliterating any hope for reducing GHG emissions over the foreseeable future.
But the destruction does not stop there. Domestically, these reckless rollbacks will accelerate environmental degradation while driving up household energy costs, deepening America’s dependence on fossil fuels, and worsening air quality—a toxic combination that will lead to higher rates of respiratory disease, premature deaths, and public health crises. The brunt of these consequences will fall disproportionately on low-income and marginalized communities, who already suffer the most from environmental pollution and climate change.
Beyond public health, these policies pose an existential threat to the U.S. economy. As climate disasters become more frequent and severe, the private insurance industry will face financial collapse, unable to cover the escalating costs of hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and crop failures. With insurers retreating from climate-ravaged regions, millions of Americans will be left unprotected, their homes and livelihoods hanging in the balance.
Trump’s environmental agenda is not merely reckless—it is a blueprint for catastrophe, ensuring that the true cost of inaction will not only be measured in hundreds of billions of dollars, but in lost lives, displaced communities, and the irreversible degradation of our planet. This is not just a policy shift; it is a full-scale assault on five decades of environmental progress, dismantling the very protections that have safeguarded public health, natural ecosystems, and climate stability.
Trump’s administration has sacrificed the future for fleeting economic gains, prioritizing the illusion of short-term prosperity over the long-term survival of our planet. He has chosen fossil fuel expansion over climate stability, the destruction of ecosystems over sustainability, and unchecked corporate greed over responsible environmental stewardship—even as the larger economy faces mounting risks from climate-driven disasters. His policies do not just endanger the environment; they set the stage for wider corporate asset destruction, as extreme weather events, resource scarcity, and ecological collapse threaten the foundations of industries worldwide.
The consequences of this reckless agenda will not be confined to the United States. By abandoning climate leadership at a critical juncture, Trump is not just stalling domestic progress—he is delaying global climate action at the precise moment when the world can least afford it. His policies are accelerating the climate crisis, ensuring that future generations inherit a world ravaged by rising seas, unbreathable air, and unrelenting natural disasters.
History will not look kindly on those who chose profit over planet, expediency over responsibility, and destruction over stewardship. The question is not whether we will pay the price for these policies—it is how high the cost will be and how many will suffer before action is finally taken.
