Rampant wildfires, heatwaves, droughts, avalanches, floods, and hurricanes are not partisan or political, they are forces of nature that remind us that the increasing effects of climate change are being felt around the world. Yet the Trump administration is doing everything in its power to worsen the crisis.
While promoting coal-fired power, oil and gas, the Trump administration cracked down on wind power. Nearly $2.6 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars has paid multiple wind energy companies, including the French company TotalEnergies, to halt building wind farms in the United States. In exchange for the $2.6 billion, the wind energy companies will invest in oil and natural gas projects.
For fifty years the United States has paid close attention to the environment. Even President Richard Nixon, a staunch conservative Republican, recognized the need to make long-lasting changes to protect the environment.
President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act, established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He also signed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Noise Pollution Act. These legal regulations governed public policy for nearly half a century. But things have changed.
During a time when smart leadership is needed to effectively mobilize efforts to save many forms of life, including human lives, as well as the earth, President Trump persists in calling climate change a hoax.
America’s environmental protection laws are being gutted, and effort is being made to diminish our National Parks and National Forests.
“Trump has made timber production a top priority. Last year, he called for a 25 percent increase in logging from national forests and directed agencies to bypass endangered species protections and other environmental regulations to make it possible.” -NYT
In terms of climate change, it is forest land in the United States that helps to absorb millions of tons of carbon per year, thereby ameliorating the effect of climate change. So, what better time than now to deploy loggers in our pristine national forests?
The Trump Administration’s plan is intended to open nearly 45 million acres of forest to road construction and logging. The repeal of the “roadless rule” enacted in 2001 to preserve the forest land is a major victory for industry groups who stand to profit from road construction and logging.
According to NOAA, climate change has increased the number of wildfires, their size and intensity, due to warmer temperatures, earlier snowmelt, and severe droughts. Yet the Forest Service, under the direction of the Trump administration, will close 57 of its 77 research stations that study wildfire risk. The scientists who monitor climate change and investigate the ramifications of logging say their work will be lost.
The temperature of the earth keeps rising. According to the Earth Island Institute, global temperatures reached historic highs in 2026, accompanied by major policy changes and extreme weather events worldwide. The BBC reported that the UK recorded its hottest summer ever with 40 days exceeding 30°C. Severe summer heatwaves across Europe and the Northern Hemisphere claimed over 35,000 lives.
During World Environment Day 2026, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the planet is facing a temporary 1.5°C overshoot, urging an accelerated transition away from fossil fuels.
The Trump administration has taken its cue to aggressively implement its own notion of environmental priorities: increase timber production, make drastic cuts to the National Park Service Staff, and bolster fossil fuel production. In addition to eliminating staff, funding for routine park maintenance projects has been slashed. It is estimated that the Trump administration used at least $67 million of the revenue generated by the National Parks to help fund Trump’s projects in Washington D.C.
The congressional funding that had been allocated to support our National Forests and our National Parks is being diverted to a private slush fund used to erect gilded monuments, including the failed renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflection Pool whose contractors were paid handsomely for a botched job.
Another new proposal set forth by the Trump administration is to trade away a forty-acre parcel of land in Yosemite National Park to a private developer. A bipartisan group of lawmakers are attempting to block the move and have declared that “public lands belong in public hands.” While land acquisitions are common for the federal government, land transactions are ordinarily brokered as additions to a National Park. In this instance, the park service is being pressured to give a forty-acre parcel to a private developer who has direct ties to Trump.
In other environmental developments heralded by the Trump administration, The United States will no longer regulate the planet-warming pollution that is generated by power plants burning coal and gas.
“The power sector is the second largest source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the United States. This pollution accumulates in the atmosphere, where it traps the sun’s heat, raising temperatures and supercharging extreme weather events around the globe. Scientists say the United States and other industrialized nations must sharply cut emissions to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change.” -NYT
The announcement was made by Trump-appointed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, who said American Power Plants “have no material impact on global climate change.” Manish Bapna, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group said, “The EPA “is ending its legal and moral responsibility to end climate pollution.”
Under the Trump administration, the E.P.A. will no longer estimate the public health benefits of reducing pollution and will only examine the costs to businesses of complying with rules that, by the way, have been gutted in favor of corporate interests. The administration has made it easier to produce fossil fuels to generate the electricity needed to supply AI data centers.
President Trump has repeatedly claimed climate change is a hoax, but the only hoax, for the record, is being waged by the large number of individuals in Trump’s orbit who are making obscene amounts of money, albeit grift, while Trump aspires to rearrange the face of the capitol in his own image and likeness.
Research Links and Suggested Reading:
Trump Sharply Scales Back Fuel Economy Rules for New Cars
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/climate/trump-gas-cars-mileage-standards.html
Our Forests Are Demanding a Sacrifice
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/opinion/wildfires-trees-scientific-animism.html
Trump rollback of US forest protections could accelerate extinction of 400 endangered species
Inspirationhome#1Gold Statues and Staff Cuts: How Trump Has Disrupted America’s Parks
Maintenance projects have been put off around the country and resources diverted to the president’s favored projects in Washington.
E.P.A. Erases Limits on Climate Pollution From Power Plants
Generation of electricity is the second largest source of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases in the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/climate/epa-power-plant-climate-rules.html?searchResultPosition=4
Trump’s Quietly Working to Give Part of Yosemite to a Private Developer August 28, 2026
Trump Administration Looks to Give a Swath of Yosemite to a Developer
The proposed land swap would allow easy access to the crown jewel of the national park system. Democrats and former Park Service officials are incensed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/us/trump-administration-yosemite-private-developer.html
Trump Administration Moves to Allow Logging in Pristine National Forests
Trump Administration to Rescind Rule Protecting Old-Growth Forests
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/18/trump-administration-growth-forests
Fighting a Logging “Epidemic” in Vermont’s Roadless Forests
Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk
Scientists say their work on fires and climate change could be lost as the agency moves its headquarters to Utah from Washington and shuts 57 research stations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/climate/forest-service-research-stations.html
Trump Administration to Pay $1 Billion to Energy Giant to Cancel Wind Farms
In exchange, the French company TotalEnergies would invest in oil and natural gas projects in Texas and elsewhere.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/climate/offshore-wind-gas-trump-total.html
Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change
Patricia Vaccarino
Patricia Vaccarino is an accomplished writer who has written award-winning film scripts, press materials, articles, essays, speeches, web content, marketing collateral, and eleven books.