It’s Just a “Hoax”
By Andrea Sanchez Benitez
Sustainability Editor
“In my long life of 82 years … there has hardly been a day when I felt more sad,” says Fraser Stoddart, a Nobel laureate who left the United States last year.
The recent election of our border neighbors poses a danger to the current climate. Last time, Trump was. Given the critical state the planet is in, this recent election poses a challenge in the battle against climate crisis. Unfortunately, the planet is set to warm over 3 °C of the preindustrial levels in the coming decades.
Trump is not one to censure himself and has publicly declared that the climate crisis is a Hoax. It does not come as a great shock that the upcoming president undermines scientists’ advice, just as he did during the pandemic when he suggested to the population to inject themselves with bleach.
During his first term, Trump reversed dozens of Environmental Protection Agency regulations and weakened rules governing pollutants like methane. While Trump has not yet begun his second term, his 2024 campaign promised everything but eco-friendly: “We have more liquid gold than any country in the world”, he said, referring to oil and gas he most definitely entrants to exploit. Trump expressed his determination to boost oil and gas production and eliminate federal support for electric vehicles.
His plans are alarming many eco-conscious people. Carbon Brief estimates that the Trump administration could boost greenhouse gas emissions by 4 billion tons through 2030, ultimately exacerbating the dangers of heat waves, floods, wildfires, droughts, and famine. This would increase deaths and disease from air pollution, inflicting some $900 million worldwide climate damage. A UN report published in October stated that failure to take urgent action to reduce the gas emissions will wreak “debilitating impacts to people, planet, and economies.”
Under the Paris Agreement, the U.S. pledged to reach a target emission reduction of 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. However, once again, Trump plans to remove the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, potentially reducing that target to just 28 percent by 2030.
Seeing as the US is the second biggest greenhouse gas emission polluter, America’s participation in the climate effort is critical to protecting a further and irreversible climate. Instead, its president will be fueling further damage to ecosystems, more extreme and deadly weather patterns, and the killing off of more plant and animal species.
“Many of us in the climate movement are not … entirely surprised. But there’s still a kind of need to take it in, and acknowledge the real emotions that come with it — in terms of fear, anger, sadness,” said Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.
In addition, Trump has expressed his will to reverse the Inflation Reduction Act, which implies $369 billion for climate efforts. He also threatened to defund the National Weather Service (NWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has been outlined in conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, under Section 4 of Project 2025, entitled “The Economy”, the plan states.
“Starting now, we are going to need brave people, people willing to push back, protect the vulnerable, and do what’s right over what’s easy,” says one senior official at the US Environmental Protection Agency.