Suhani Gupta, Photo provided by Daniel Torok and Kiwiev

Trump’s environmental policies have extended to consumer products as well, with his reversal of single-use plastic. In addition to making changes in policy and environmental organizations, Trump has emphasized increasing fossil fuel extraction for energy, particularly in the oil and gas space.

From prioritizing fossil fuel extraction to banning paper straws, Trump’s administration brings about an onset of new efforts counteracting environmental initiatives. His actions push back crucial green policies and climate change progress, marking a shift away from sustainability-focused initiatives. 

Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on the same day as his inauguration. Since the agreement’s adoption in 2015, nearly 200 countries have ratified the treaty, which aims to limit global warming and reduce greenhouse gases. Now, the U.S. will be one of only four countries which stands outside the agreement. 

Green Team co-president Shreyas Chakravarty (12) emphasized the importance of international agreements in creating environmental change.

“Developed countries don’t want to give money to developing countries or at-risk nations, so international agreements are the only way to balance all of those concerns and actually get any action,” Shreyas said. “By pulling out, the US will not be an effective partner in delegitimizing every future negotiation.”

After declaring a National Energy Emergency, Trump also launched investigations into the effectiveness of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is responsible for coordinating disaster response, and suggested the possibility of eliminating it completely. Due to the current prevalence of extreme weather events driven by climate change, FEMA plays an increasingly-important role through federal provisions. Trump further proposed cutting back on funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which mitigates environmental and health risks. Such cuts could leave communities more vulnerable to lead, toxic chemicals and contaminated water.

“For the people in Los Angeles who lost their homes [due to wildfires], if FEMA can’t be counted upon to help communities in need after natural disasters, [Trump’s] going to lose a lot of support,” Green Team adviser and environmentalist Diana Moss said. “The wealthy people are always going to find ways to rebuild, but people on the lower socioeconomic bracket are going to find it difficult to find housing. They are going to be forced to live in dirtier areas, so health impacts will be greater on them.”

Trump’s environmental policies have extended to consumer products as well, with his reversal of single-use plastic. This order halts the purchase of paper straws by the federal government and outlines plans to remove all policies that previously restricted plastic straws, asserting paper straws to be nonfunctional and containing harmful chemicals. Moss believes this move will reverse years of progress in reducing the use of plastics.

“Plastics are a huge problem, and it’s a fallacy that plastics are being recycled,” Moss said. “They’re going into landfills, they’re going into microplastics, they’re being found everywhere in the oceans, in our bodies, in animals that we eat, and so we need to do all that we can do to reduce plastics.”

In addition to making changes in policy and environmental organizations, Trump has emphasized increasing fossil fuel extraction for energy, particularly in the oil and gas space. Adhering to the long-established Republican campaign slogan “Drill, Baby, Drill,” coined by former U.S. politician Michael Steele, Trump aims to establish U.S. “energy dominance” by reducing reliance on foreign energy sources and cutting back restrictions on drilling projects.

While Trump’s immediate goal is to decrease domestic oil prices, the long-term environmental costs of increased drilling may include oil spills and air pollution. Drilling releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, accelerating climate change.

“The process of oil drilling itself can be extremely harmful to the ecosystems and habitats in which they take place,” environmental advocate and debater Anoushka Madan (10) said. “Over the past couple years, we’ve been moving towards alternate power sources such as electric or hybrid when producing [things like] cars with the knowledge that it reduces our greenhouse gases while gas and oil increases them. It definitely feels like we are progressing backwards as a country.”

Trump’s pursuit of natural resources extends to timber. He signed an executive order authorizing clear-cutting across 280 million acres of national forests and public lands, claiming that this move will protect “national and economic security.” Among other issues, the decision violates the Endangered Species Act, which protects threatened wildlife, plants and their habitats.

“The Endangered Species Act was made for a reason, and it helps maintain the beauty of nature and various species without them going out of existence,” Anoushka said. “By violating this, Trump is harming these species and killing off the last of a kind in order to carelessly advance his own ambitions of obtaining timber. He is reversing the protective work which has been done over the past 100 years.”

The Trump administration defends these policy changes by arguing that the new measures will promote energy independence and strengthen the US economy on a global scale. However, many critics claim that his policies undermine efforts to combat climate change and preserve natural habitats. Moss criticizes Trump’s new business-minded policies for neglecting environmental well-being in place of economic gains. 

“It’s tragic that the environment has become so politicized,” Moss said. “There’s a group of people that are thinking that climate action is political primarily. It shouldn’t be Republicans versus Democrats, it should be the world together versus environmental issues.”