In 2009 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that climate pollution endangers public health and welfare. The EPA carefully reviewed the scientific evidence and found that greenhouse gases produced by burning coal, oil, and gas worsen deadly climate change — increasing catastrophic heat waves, droughts, floods, etc. and also affect public health by fouling the air that we all breathe. This finding, called the “endangerment finding,” required the EPA to regulate these gasses to protect public health. Since then, their regulations have reduced emissions from power plants, automobiles, and other sources, and saved countless lives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration revoked the “endangerment finding,” thus undermining the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect the environment and public health. There has been no change in the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change and harming our health. If anything, the scientific consensus is even stronger than it was in 2009. With this unjustified step, the administration has taken away much of the government’s ability to slow devastating global climate change and to limit unhealthy pollution — air pollution that kills 100,000 people per year in the U.S.
With this one act, Trump has endangered us all.
Of course, Trump has been endangering millions ever since he reassumed office. The almost immediate Trump/Musk/MAGA shut-down of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths from malnutrition and infectious diseases in the last year. Immigrants to the U.S., who are contributing members of our society and have committed no crime, are being detained, deported, and locked in concentration camps by the tens of thousands. Some of them and their supporters have been killed.
Houselessness, hunger, and death continue in Gaza with U.S. complicity. The undermining of international security arrangements threatens to lead to war. MAGA cuts are leaving millions in the U.S, including children, without adequate health care or nutrition. Recent document releases have made it clear that Trump and some in his circle maintained active relationships with Jeffrey Epstein long after he was convicted of soliciting a child for prostitution and accused of more than 60 cases of abuse. These are only a few of the actions Trump has taken to endanger people near and far.
As accustomed as we are to Trump’s excesses, I still find it mind-boggling that he and his cronies would intentionally remove the government’s ability to protect us from the causes of catastrophic climate change and deadly air pollution — flying in the face of established science and harming people and the planet on such a grand scale. How is it possible to have so little regard for human life? How is it possible to prioritize growing your own wealth, ego, and domination (and that of your friends and allies) still further when you are already a billionaire and hold the most powerful office in the world?
I think the answer is that greed, ego, and the lust for power and preeminence have no limits in minds that are sufficiently corrupted and where natural feelings of humanity and empathy have been deeply suppressed. I think we have often assumed that there were limits to how extreme a political force could become in the United States. It now seems clear that there are no limits to the cruelty, greed, corruption, and disregard for others of the current cabal in control in Washington D.C.
Of course, the U.S. government (along with some good things it’s done) has historically often been a danger to the world and to its own people. Our history includes squashing popular governments in Latin America, colonization of the Philippines, war in Iraq, and domestically undermining unions, widespread racism, and favoring the rich, just to mention a few examples.
Nonetheless, the endangerment by Trump and MAGA seems more blatant, more global, more extreme, and with more dire consequences. The concentration of unchecked power in the hands of a small number of billionaires and their underlings is greater than ever. Many positions of power are held by those whose drive for power and wealth leaves them uncaring about the effects of their actions on others. This is occurring all at once with our awareness and in our own time.
For years we have relied on checks and balances within the government to limit (not eliminate) abuses. It is now clear that the traditional checks and balances are inadequate to the current situation. Something different needs to happen. I think we are going to need to find many ways to stand up against the despots. The people of Minneapolis are providing a great model. Effective organizing is happening in many places. We can all find ways to contribute and to join in creating an ever-growing resistance — resistance to the endangerment of people and of our beautiful planetary home.
Russ Vernon-Jones lives in Amherst and is a member of the Steering Committee of Climate Action Now (CAN). The views expressed here are his own. He blogs regularly on climate justice at http://www.russvernonjones.org and can be reached there.