Opinion | Trump Takes Aim at the Climate

The science is settled: human-driven climate change, fueled largely by fossil fuels, is already harming public healthopens in a new tab or window. Rising temperatures, extreme weather, and deadly wildfires are no longer distant threats; they are our new reality and have created a public health emergency.

Federal policy shapes both climate and health outcomes. Many of President Trump’s recent Executive Orders (EOs) threaten to accelerate climate change, disrupt international agreements, and deepen health disparities, especially among our most vulnerable patients and their communities.

The following executive orders were signed on January 20, 2025, the first day of President Trump’s second term.

EO 14148:opens in a new tab or window Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions

This EO directs the elimination of many prior environmental justice initiatives and offices that protect communities already suffering from pollution and climate change — disproportionately affecting communities of color.

EO 14155:opens in a new tab or window Withdrawal From the WHO

The U.S. has been the largest contributor to the World Health Organization (WHO) since its founding in 1948. Severing tiesopens in a new tab or window with the WHO weakens our access to global health threat data (such as vector-borne diseases, pollution, and heatwaves), ends research on climate-linked diseasesopens in a new tab or window, strains the WHO’s budget and capacity, and undermines collaborative responses to health emergencies.

EO 14156:opens in a new tab or window National Energy Emergency Declaration

Like EO 14154opens in a new tab or window, “Unleashing American Energy,” this EO encourages domestic fossil fuel production and signals a shift away from renewable and clean energy sources. It declares that the U.S. energy supply is so inadequate that it threatens national security. By declaring a false “energy emergency,” this EO ignores the fact that the U.S. produces more energy now than ever beforeopens in a new tab or window while sidelining clean energy, doubling down on fossil fuels, and directing federal agencies to shorten or bypass certain environmental and health reviews.

EO 14157:opens in a new tab or window Moratorium on Offshore Wind

This EO calls for a stop to all federal actions promoting offshore wind development, including leases, permits, and loans. It also directs the withdrawal of all areas of the Offshore Continental Shelf from consideration for new projects. The result would mean freezing progress on clean energy wind projects and prolonging our dependence on fossil fuels.

EO 14162:opens in a new tab or window Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements

This EO directs the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and kills our climate finance commitments. As the world’s historic top emitter, our retreat undercuts global cooperationopens in a new tab or window and weakens collective climate action.

EO 14261:opens in a new tab or window Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry

This order aims to increase domestic coal production and use, as well as coal exports. If successful, this EO would accelerate climate change through increased greenhouse gas emissions and would cause increased temperatures and air pollution. The effects of heat and air pollution are synergistic, resulting in harm to the health of many people, such as those with respiratory problems, pregnant women, and infants.

Beyond Executive Orders: A Broader Assault on Climate and Health

Since signing these orders on Trump’s first day back in office, the administration has taken additional steps that threaten our climate health. These include:

• A proposed 55% budget cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), slashing enforcement of environmental protections.
• Major cuts to CDC, NIH, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), undermining research, public health surveillance, and preparedness for extreme weather events.
• A proposal to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), risking recovery capacity after extreme weather.
• Creation of a National Energy Dominance Council focused solely on boosting fossil fuels production.
• Scrubbing of climate data from federal websites, limiting public access to vital information.

This administration’s actions place our most vulnerable — children, pregnant women, the elderly, and communities of color — at even greater risk.

A Call to Action for Health Professionals

This is a critical moment. Many of these executive orders and policy changes are still in early stages and can be challenged. As trusted messengers, health professionals have a moral and professional duty to respond. These policies are not just environmental missteps — they are a public health crisis. The health impacts of climate change are no longer abstract or distant. The damage is happening now, and the trajectory can still be altered.

Speak up. Organize. Inform your patients. Write, protest, and advocate. Join your professional organizations, write op-eds, meet with policymakers, and organize within your institutions. This is not a drill, it is a public health emergency. Science-based, equitable climate policy is our only path forward. The time to act is now.

Roger Hicks, MD,opens in a new tab or window is the medical director of Dignity Health Medical Foundation’s Sierra Nevada Urgent Care and a director of the College of Urgent Care Medicine.

The views of the author do not necessarily reflect those of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health or its members, Dignity Health Medical Foundation, or the College of Urgent Care Medicine.