This Points of View article reflects the opinions of the writer, not necessarily those of Atmos.
President Trump last week signed an executive order, titled Make America Beautiful Again, which establishes a new federal commission on conservation and stands out as an unexpected nod to environmental protection. Though silent on climate change and driven more by political optics than science, the order calls for expanded public access to federal lands, the restoration of aquatic ecosystems, and voluntary efforts to recover wildlife populations. It’s a rare moment in which themes of environmental stewardship—albeit narrowly defined—edge their way into an administration otherwise focused on deregulation and extraction.
It’s also a masterclass in distortion. The order piggybacks on an Earth Day missive from the White House that claimed the Trump administration is “protecting public lands” by opening up federal lands for fracking, cracking down on paper straws because they contain “forever chemicals” that infiltrate water supplies, and scaling back on renewable projects like wind turbines in an effort to “protect” wildlife. (The president has previously claimed, without evidence, that wind turbines kill whales.)
These boldly insincere attempts to frame Trump as some kind of climate hero, when he’s obviously anything but, are truly beyond the pale. In the first few months of his presidency, hekilled vital, longstanding climate protections,pushed for heavy investment in fossil fuels, andwithdrew from the Paris Agreement. He ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, risking the release of radioactive material into the surrounding environment and emboldening Israeli aggression that experts say constitute genocide and ecocide in Gaza. More recently, Congress passed Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill that guts key provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act—a landmark piece of environmental legislation passed under the Biden administration—and slashes support for wind and solar, among other rollbacks.
Though only six months in, the Trump administration has already been defined by a politics of cruelty. To better understand the chaos, it’s first worth zooming out to examine the broader picture: Trump’s climate rollback is part of a global authoritarian turn that treats environmental action as subversive.
The climate crisis has always been an issue intrinsically connected to other systemic injustices, from theongoing persecution of migrants to thecontinued destruction of Palestine and starvation of its remaining population. Critical thinking has never been more crucial, and yet it’s a skill that’s under threat. Progressive books are being banned en masse, school curriculums are being severely restricted, and AI continues to creep into every corner of our lives, hoping to act as our collective, de facto brain, while likely eroding our learning skills. To quote that Scottish TikTok legend:“What happened to having a think?”
It’s no coincidence that Trump’s climate cutbacks decimated thinktanks andrazed existing climate protections, defunding research which continues to show that rampant, unchecked capitalism is incompatible with the protection of Earth’s finite resources. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, climate campaigner and The Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein summed up this mentality in one swift soundbite: “No research, no problem.” In a world ruled by billionaires, sacrificing short-term profit for the long-term protection of the planet looks less appealing than just colonizing Mars.
But sometimes, in authoritarianism’s stranger flourishes, arbitrary policies can also score small, unexpected climate victories.
Earlier this year, Trump’s administration announced it would work with the FDA toeliminate synthetic food dyes. These artificial colorings are generally made from petroleum-based chemicals which, as well as being linked towater pollution and food chain destruction, come withan array of health risks. They’re typically used to make ultra-processed products look more appealing, but replacing them with natural dyes is possible—and it’s been done elsewhere. Froot Loops are just one example. While an American box is packed with synthetic food dyes, Julie Cresswell wrote for TheNew York Times, a box sold in Canada contains rings colored with the juices of fruits, including blueberries and watermelon. Trump’s administration may belate to the game, but it’s still a small climate win.
Fast fashion could suffer under Trump, too. His back-and-forth trade battle with Chinese President Xi Jinping has been ongoing for months, but cheap exports were caught in the crossfire when Trump closed a “de minimis” loophole, which exempted low-cost products from import fees. In the lead-up to the new rules coming into effect, Bloomberg reported American price hikes of up to 377% across products sold by the ultra-low-cost Shein Group, indicating that these costs would be passed on to consumers. This is very unlikely to truly stamp out fast fashion—in fact,early reports indicate that it could make the industry much more exploitative and “Made in America” by no means guarantees ethical supply chains—but Trump’s tariffs suggest outcompeting China on the global stage, including on environmental optics, is high on his priority list.
That same competitive impulse is now bleeding into energy policy. Trump’s mass deregulation is supposedly focused on what’s “best for business,” and in this arena, the global growth of clean energy is hard to ignore, especially with China emerging as the world’s dominant force in renewable manufacturing and deployment. But China isn’t the only player. The European Union has firmly positioned itself as a global leader in sustainability-focused policy, embedding environmental goals into its economic recovery plans, design policy, trade agreements, and industrial strategy. In this international landscape, falling behind on green innovation is bad economics. And given Trump’s obsession with American exceptionalism, he may still back certain clean energy sectors if the pitch is patriotic enough.
“Sometimes, in authoritarianism’s stranger flourishes, arbitrary policies can also score small, unexpected climate victories.”
Jake Hall, writer
Low-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar power generated 40% of the world’s electricity in 2024, according to a report published in April by think tank Ember—the highest share since the 1940s. The United States economy in 2024 saw unprecedented growth in renewable energy capacity, driven largely by falling costs. But that momentum was fueled by the green tech incentives embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill now threatens to roll back many of those subsidies: phasing out tax credits for wind and solar, eliminating incentives for electric vehicles, and adding restrictions that could choke off U.S. access to battery supply chains.
The “cleanest” energy sector to benefit from Trump’s deregulatory agenda so far is nuclear. Though often billed as a low-carbon solution, environmental campaigners have sounded alarms about nuclear’s inherent risks. But that fragile claim to climate leadership is already shifting as rolling back the Inflation Reduction Act will likely give other countries a head start. Climate campaign group 350.org described the U.S. as “merely a footnote, not a global player” in its April analysis of the global green energy sector, noting that only 4% of China’s clean tech exports are bound for the U.S. As Andreas Sieber, associate director at 350.org, told The Guardian: “The transition to renewables is unstoppable, with or without him. His latest move does little to impact the booming clean energy market but will isolate the U.S. and drive up costs for American consumers.”
In addition to tax credits for green tech, the Inflation Reduction Act contains incentives to boost “domestic production of nickel, rare earths and other materials used in advanced electronics and weaponry.” Reuters reports. Eliminating this provision could tank an already-fragile sector, and counter-intuitively boost China’s stronghold of critical mineral supply chains. This kind of turbulence has become characteristic of Trump’s rollercoaster presidency, and it’s costing him key allies and support. The One Big Beautiful Bill faces bipartisan backlash, and governments around the world are bracing for the environmental fallout of Trump’s bizarre whims, including his deregulatory spree, with many doubling down on their own climate commitments in response.
It’s been an unpredictable few months with a handful of accidental climate wins, and given Trump’s volatility, they might just keep coming. He may bang the drum of American superiority, but global leaders are making clear: The fight to protect the planet continues, with or without him.
Biome
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