Environment

Federal climate regulation is at risk as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rescinded the 2009 “endangerment finding” on February 12, 2026. The EPA called the engagement finding “the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.” States like California and Wisconsin, as well as several organizations, are preparing for a legal battle that could eventually reach the Supreme Court, which could take years. They argue that the U.S. could be left with far less ability to regulate emissions at a national level.

Scientists first suspected a link between greenhouse gases and climate in the mid-19th century. Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius won the Nobel Prize in chemistry with calculations in 1897 that linked burning coal to global warming. From that time onwards, scientists took up studying this linkage with better tools, more resources, and coordination.

A year ago, at the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term as President, he signed Executive Order 14199, requesting a “government‑wide review” of all international intergovernmental organizations, conventions, and treaties that the United States formally supports. That review resulted in a signed a memorandum on January 6th  of this year that specifies that the U.S. formally withdraw from 66 “organizations, conventions, and treaties.” Included in the 66 are the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and other important climate treaties. In all, the U.S. withdrew from 31 UN bodies.

The Amazon rainforest is rapidly degrading. The ecological functions of the rainforest such as absorbing greenhouse gases and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere are diminishing as the size of the rainforest shrinks. Global precipitation patterns depend upon the Amazon’s unique location on the planet. The diversity of plant life in the Amazon constitutes about a quarter of the globe’s stock of carbon biomass. There are 80,000 species of plants.

A group of young activists from the landmark Held v. Montana case filed a new challenge against recent state laws. The filed petition challenges several statutes passed by Republicans that threaten the activist group’s victory in the Montana Supreme Court in 2024. According to the group, the new changes are violations of the state’s guarantee of a “clean and healthful environment.” The youth plaintiffs are preparing for a renewed legal fight and highlighting that climate harms are a constitutional issue.

In keeping with the administration’s bull-in-a-China-shop approach to the environment, foreign policy, tariffs, and just about every other domestic and international issue, the Trump team now wants to dig up the bottom of the sea.

Dolphins in New York Harbor, whales breaching off Lower Manhattan, oysters thriving in the waters around New York City, and the Hudson River—long written off as dead—now supports fishing again. These signs of  environmental recovery, while miraculous, all could slam into reverse as the latest Trump administration rollbacks take effect.

In a move that has startled climate scientists and energy economists alike, the Trump administration recently unveiled a sweeping new initiative aimed at reviving America’s coalindustry—a sector long regarded as both an economic relic and a climate catastrophe. The plan, a mix of subsidies, deregulation, and export promotion, represents a dramatic reversal of the Biden-era shift toward renewable energy and the most significant policy intervention in favor of coal since the early 2000s.

Most economic and energy analysts define coal as having an impending obsolescence, regardless of government intervention. Forcing more years out of coal plants that are aging past their end of life will end up passing unnecessary  costs onto consumers. A study by independent consulting firm Grid Strategies has found that the real cost of mining defunct coal facilities will end up costing end consumers up to $6 billion a year USD.

For the 2026 federal budget year, beginning October 1st, the White House has proposed a $1.2 billion – or 36% – cut to the National Park Service (NPS). Prior to this proposed budget cut, around 2,800 NPS employees had either been fired or resigned their positions under an early retirement buyout. Under the Biden administration, the NPS employed around 20,000 staff. The NPS manages 63 national parks and 370 other sites that include lesser-known historic sites, monuments, and national seashores.

On 19 July 2025, the Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi was arrested under suspicion of “facilitation of terrorist activities during the June 25, 2025, protests.” He was released on 21 July on a KSh 1m personal bond ($7,723). He was charged not for terrorism, but for possession of two tear gas canisters and a single blank 7.62 bullet. This is not the first time Mwangi was arrested by Kenyan authorities, nor the first time a Kenyan journalist or human rights activist was arrested by federal authorities for similar reasons.