Trump Fiddles while Earth Burns
Background
Earth is heating (Fig. 1) mainly because we have energized Earth’s human economies by burning fossil fuels, releasing carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere (Figs 2 & 3). The isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2 indicates all the new carbon comes from burning fossil fuels, and, frankly, there just is not another plausible source. Earth is now about 2.2℉ warmer than in pre-industrial times. As Earth heats up, seas will rise. Heat waves, droughts and floods will increase, and agriculture will fail in some places. Human migration will increase. The Fascists of the world won’t like that!
Figure 1. The difference in average land-sea surface temperature compared to the 1861-1890 mean, in degrees Celsius.
Figure 2. Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured in parts per million (ppm). Long-term trends in CO2 concentrations can be measured at high-recolution using preserved air samples from ice cores. The current concentration is dramatically higher than any in the past roughly 800,000 years.
Figure 3. Global atmospheric CO2 concentration, measured in parts per million (ppm), from early 1979 to the present.
Good News!
We can solve this problem if we electrify the economy with renewable sources and leave the remaining fossil fuels in the ground. In a stroke of good luck, it is now cheaper to produce electricity from wind, solar, and batteries than from fossil fuels.
In the first half of 2025, global solar and wind generation growth was greater than the growth in demand because renewables are cheaper and faster to deploy! One hundred countries cut their dependence on imported fossil fuels between 2010 and 2023. Electric vehicles are also getting cheaper, and their range is increasing. For economic reasons, they are destined to fully replace internal combustion vehicles in time. But we are running out of time.
The Paris Agreement is an international treaty adopted on Dec. 12, 2015 during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) held in Paris, France. The international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 3.6℉; ideally no more than 2.7°F. In order to do this, the world needs to stop increasing atmospheric carbon by 2050, and to be half-way there by 2030. Economic incentives, like tax credits for electric vehicles and heat pumps, as well as guaranteed loans that make it cheaper to install solar panels and wind farms can accelerate the transition to renewable energy. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act did just that. It was not enough, but it was a good start.
The Bad News. Lots of Bad News.
Businesses own or control enormous reserves of coal, oil, and gas, which are nearly worthless if the world stops burning them for energy. Consequently, these businesses have fought vigorously, attacking climate science with a robust disinformation campaign. They have also been major funders of Republican political campaigns.
Republicans have actively blocked legislation to address the US’s contribution to climate change. The President calls climate change a “hoax”, and EPA’s Administrator Lee Zeldin calls it “climate change religion”. Here are but a few examples of this Republican administration’s response to climate change:
Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Accords (again).
Trump severely cut funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), effectively eliminating the division responsible for climate change research. His 2026 budget eliminated (among other observatories) Mona Loa in Hawaii, which has been monitoring atmospheric CO2 levels since 1957.
Of 111 Trump nominees and appointees to agencies involved in energy and environmental policy, 43 were previously fossil fuel industry employees, and 12 more were from fossil fuel-funded think tanks.
The US Global Change Research Program, a consortium of 15 federal agencies that coordinated climate research across the Federal government, was responsible for coordinating and disseminating National Climate Assessments, required by law every four years. Trump closed down the Program’s website and fired the people working to produce the sixth National Climate Assessment.
In 2009, the US EPA, required to regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, issued its “Endangerment Finding” for CO2. A detailed and thorough review of the literature on the effects of CO2, the “Endangerment Finding” was the basis for regulating carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and aggressively increasing the fuel economy standards. The Trump administration is trying to reverse the “Endangerment Finding.”
This list just scratches the surface of the Trump administration’s attack on climate science. Much of the support for renewable energy, electric vehicles, and the construction of battery plants and factories for building EVs has been eliminated. NSF funding for climate related topics has been cut as well.
The damage is not only at the federal level. The NC General Assembly has not only failed to address the threat of climate change; it has sought to reverse efforts already in place. In July 2025, our Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the Power Bill Reduction Act which repealed the deadline of 2030, a deadline by which Duke Energy would have to have reduced its carbon emissions by 70%, compared to 2005 levels. Furthermore, it will allow Duke Energy to charge ratepayers in advance for new gas generating plants they may not even build.
In 2021, the NC General Assembly passed the Choice of Energy Service Act, a law that explicitly prevented local governments from banning natural gas hookups. In 2025, its Executive in Need of Scrutiny dramatically increased the difficulty of making new environmental regulations.
So …
Climate change is real, is our fault, and will make all our lives much harder. We pretty much have all the technology needed to stop it, but Republicans, supporting powerful donors, are blocking the response in the United States.
For More Information
There is a lot of good information about climate change on the web. The following suggestions are just a sampling:
A great podcast about efforts to electrify the grid with renewable energy: Volts by David Roberts, a journalist with long-time experience covering climate change.
General reference to counter climate denial: Skeptical Science
Blog by climate scientists about climate change. Hosted by some of the major climate scientists around the world, its archives are good sources of coverage of some of the interesting issues in understanding climate: RealClimate.
Climate.gov was the website where the U.S. Government’s information on climate change was concentrated. The Trump administration shut it down and fired the staff. The staff went and started a replacement, Climate.us, and have begun to upload the information that had been at the US site there.