An anti-science administration ignores a warming planet

The election of a felon to the presidency, who thrives on attention and name recognition, marks the end of American leadership on addressing human-caused climate change.

The consequences will be far worse than his damage to NATO, the world economy or even Pax Americana that, despite blunders, lifted billions out of poverty and maintained the peace among major world powers for the longest period in modern history.

One of his first actions upon taking power was to withdraw from the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. The cost will likely be $44 trillion worldwide according to a Citi GPS report, a subsidiary of Citibank.

For Seattle and the Northwest, increasing global temperatures risk more wildfires, rising sea levels, danger to the Columbia River and large numbers of climate refugees fleeing from the Sun Belt. The repercussions are being reported by my colleagues in The Seattle Times’ Climate Lab.

The state’s agriculture sector in 2023, also a major export and endangered by global warming, totaled $14 billion. Seattle-area corporations are attempting to address the issue, such as Amazon’s climate pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, joined by 550 other corporations. The Microsoft Climate Research Initiative helps leading scientists study climate-change issues.

Washington is a national leader in addressing rising temperatures, including the 2021 Climate Commitment Act, reaffirmed by voters in November. It follows the 2019 Clean Energy Transformation Act, which requires the state’s energy grid to be carbon-free by 2045.

Washington was the second state to enact a cap-and-invest program, which limits carbon emissions and requires businesses to obtain state consent equal to their covered outflows; the allowances are bought and sold in quarterly auctions held by the state Department of Ecology.

All states attempting climate legislation are targets of the new administration.

Before the election, one analysis argued that Trump’s victory could add an additional 4 billion tons of American carbon emissions to the atmosphere by 2030 compared with the policies of former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The result would be a cost of $900 billion globally based on federal estimates.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a multimillionaire former Microsoft employee with no experience in environmental protection, just rolled back protection for millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness for mining and oil drilling.

According to The New York Times, Burgum accused the Biden administration of prioritizing “obstruction over production and undermining our ability to harness domestic resources at a time when American energy independence has never been more critical.”

By contrast, Biden’s Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo tribe, was committed to protecting tribal rights, national parks, monuments and public lands.

“Energy independence” is a myth if it’s based solely on Happy Motoring. Of course, some people must drive for a living. But others need different, greener alternatives.

The United States produces a record amount of petroleum, more than any other nation. But a balanced energy policy requires less oil dependence and more clean energy, which as of last year accounted for 20% of all electricity nationally, a growing number.

“We are an ‘all of the above’ country in many ways,” Colorado U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper told Politico last year.

Colorado is among the nation’s largest oil producers. “But is that sufficient? Ultimately, we’re going to have to figure out how we get to a clean energy future,” he said.

Yet we continue to import oil and spend billions funding fleets and troops to keep the sea-lanes open, because of car dependency and the social engineering of sprawl and driving, rather than expanding abundant transit and urban growth boundaries.

Biden’s policies to keep more carbon in the ground came in such forms as $100 billion in federal loans and grants for clean energy projects, including bringing affordable wind and solar power to the grid. Biden also pushed a $20.5 billion investment in national transit systems, including millions for Sound Transit’s much-needed light rail expansion.

Now, facing a climate crisis, Republicans intend to roll these back. And many Democrats haven’t always been as green as they claim.

Even supposedly “green” and “progressive” Seattle refuses to build a badly needed First Avenue streetcar.

David Wallace-Wells wrote in The New York Times that the new president’s “assault on the country’s climate ambitions, over just three months, is not just enraging but also perversely awe inspiring.”

These included deep staff and funding reductions to Biden clean-energy programs, coaxing other countries to purchase U.S. liquefied natural gas, along with the wholesale elimination of the green energy segment of Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act and solar energy’s cost advantages.

Climate change is more than a health and economic danger. It also compromises national security. Recently, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth eliminated most Pentagon planning for a warming world, with few exceptions. This contradicts years of Defense Department concerns over climate change and its consequences. Seattle is surrounded by military installations.

And yet, even though a Pew Research Center poll found two-thirds of respondents supported green energy, climate change is a lower priority than other issues.

And although almost all scientists who study climate agree that the change is real and growing worse than feared, and many say it should be a national emergency, the issue didn’t gain purchase in the presidential election.

Now, with Trump in the White House, nothing will be done.

Indeed, other countries are pursuing American scientists who’ve lost their federal grants. Among them are researchers at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In addition to deep cuts in federal scientific programs, Trump also wants to eliminate funding to help ships navigate harbors and let people know about tsunamis and hurricane intensity.

David Richardson, the acting Federal Emergency Management Agency director, told staff that he was unaware hurricane season had started, according to multiple news reports. This comes as FEMA funding is reduced and many vital federal workers there are forced out.

Now, we’re living in Donald Trump’s world. Elections have consequences and future historians will mark 2024 as the most consequential — in a bad way — in American history, especially for a rapidly and dangerously warming planet.