Earth Day, April 22, is a time to take a cold, clear look at the state of the planet... how society ruled by capitalism-imperialism interacts with nature... and sound the call to act to save the environment.

What screams out on Earth Day 2025 is that planet Earth is on the edge of catastrophic changes because of global warming—and that the Trump/MAGA fascists are on a mission to push it over the edge.

Some Basic Facts and Understanding

2024 was the hottest year since human society emerged on the planet. Powerful storms intensified by climate change lashed the earth—unprecedented extreme weather events across the planet in 2024 killed 1,700 people, and displaced over 800,000. Many species of plant and animal life are threatened with extinction... fragile ecosystems¹ have become even more fragile... and there is a very real chance that climate change could reach extremes that endanger the very ability of human civilization to survive on the planet.

It is firmly established scientific fact that the crisis of global warming has been overwhelmingly caused by the burning of oil, natural gas, and coal—and only massive reductions in extraction and burning of those fossil fuels can reverse the catastrophic course. This will take radical and sweeping transformation of how we live, produce the needs of life, and treat nature. These changes cannot be put off long, if we are to save the planet. 

What is standing in the way?

The Climate Crisis Is Systemic

The climate crisis is a system—economic-social-political system—problem. It is a product of capitalism-imperialism, driven by the competitive search for profit and more profit. The U.S. has been climate criminal #1. It is #1 historically in injecting greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and other heat-trapping gases) into the atmosphere; it is #1 right now in producing and exporting oil and natural gas; and the U.S. military is the #1 institutional user of fossil fuel. 

And now, when we need massive and immediate reductions in fossil fuel consumption, especially in the U.S.—Trump/MAGA fascism has come to power, with a maniacal three-prong program to take this in exactly the opposite direction:

Trump/MAGA fascism aims to smash through all barriers—all restrictions and limitations—to fossil fuel extraction and plundering of the environment. They are hell-bent on pushing aside any obstacles standing in the way of further bolstering U.S. global energy and overall dominance. To make that happen, they are working overtime to attack and cripple climate science and discredit climate scientists… and to enact draconian (vicious) repression against all who stand up to this assault on the climate. 

Comparing Trump’s regime to Hitler’s, Bob Avakian said both involve “... a terrible momentum that will involve massive, monstrous crimes against humanity, in this country and in the world overall.” (from social media message REVOLUTION #112, “Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and is completely illegitimate”). What Trump is doing, if MAGA fascism is not defeated and driven from power, will accelerate climate change and have immense consequences leading more rapidly and potentially irreversibly towards an “uninhabitable planet.” 

1. Smashing Through All Barriers to Fossil Fuel Extraction and Environmental Protection

An article in Bloomberg.com in March listed 82 separate actions that Trump took during his first 52 days in office to expand oil production and burning, throughout many sections of the federal government, and impacting society overall. Here are some of the key things that he has done:

— Pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate treaty, and other international agreements and commitments. Even though the Paris treaty and the other agreements are NOT a solution to climate change... for the U.S. to pull out sends a big signal to the world that it will burn fossil fuel like never before, all consequences for the future be damned. And U.S. imperialism will respect no global agreements that limit in the slightest its ability to dominate the world and dictate terms to others. 

— Thrown out laws, court decisions, and rules and regulations that have been in place for decades. One example: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has started to overturn its 2009 finding that heat-trapping greenhouse gases threaten public health. This lays the legal basis for burning and drilling without legal constraint. The Trump regime is moving to overturn pollution regulations and standards.

— Challenged and dismissed limits on drilling and mining regardless of damage to the environment. One example: Trump ordered opening up oil exploration in Alaska (beyond even what Biden had already done). This would turn vast areas of fragile and pristine wilderness into sites of pipelines, oil spills, and fires. 

— Refused to spend funds and carry out policies to promote renewable power like solar and wind that had already been approved by Congress. Biden’s plan for renewable energy was utterly out of synch with what is massively and urgently needed—but what Trump is doing takes the world much further and faster into catastrophe.

2. Shutting Down Climate Science, Denigrating/Discrediting Scientists

The fascist regime has been quickly dismantling key institutions in the government that sought to respond to, monitor and analyze the changing climate. They fired huge numbers of highly trained scientific staff who studied the environment and climate change and made their findings available to the public. They stopped the production and distribution of important scientific reports on climate change. And they’ve taken down websites and attacked university science departments and climate studies around the country. 

The scientific and policy institutions Trump is gutting were constricted and limited by the capitalist system—but they did do important work and contributed to understanding what we are up against and what to do. Here are a few things the fascists have done:

— They have scrubbed even mention of climate from websites across the government. They don’t want anyone to even THINK of climate change. This includes removing important scientific data that researchers around the world use to analyze the rapidly changing climate. One example: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was ordered to shut down its map of sea-surface temperatures, which helps show how warmer sea surface temperature makes for bigger and more destructive hurricanes. 

— International scientific cooperation is crucial for combating climate change, and scientists in the U.S. have been very actively working with scientists all over the world. NOAA has now been ordered to halt all international communication unless that contact is approved by a Trump political appointee. Scientific email will be monitored. This will do great harm to humanity’s ability to deal with climate change.

— A big part of the Trump assault on the universities is to slash government funding of science. Part of what is being targeted is climate research. Many billions of dollars are threatened. 

The MAGA fascists hate science, except when it can be used to serve particular economic needs and interests and rivalry with global competitors of U.S. imperialism. They hate it when people have the tools to understand reality, because the fascists want and demand blind obedience. And where scientific evidence stands as a barrier to key objectives, like unleashing drilling, production and burning of fossil fuels, they go after science with viciousness.

3. Trump/MAGA Fascism Is Making It a Crime to Defend the Planet

Extreme repressive measures against protest and dissent are being put into place, and some of this is specifically focused against climate-related protests and environmental organizations. This is both punishment now and threat of what will be brought down on those who dare to protest in the future:

— A North Dakota court recently handed down a $660 million dollar verdict against the environmental organization Greenpeace for completely legal support of non-violent protest against an oil pipeline going through indigenous land at Standing Rock North Dakota. 

— Many state legislatures and the U.S. Congress are working on or have passed highly repressive bills aimed at pipeline protests—the proposed federal bill provides penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for individuals or $500,000 for organizations for protests that “disrupt” planned or operational gas pipelines. What “disrupt” means is left intentionally vague and broad in the bill and it could target almost any protest.

— And now the government is threatening to withdraw tax exempt status from environmental organizations (as well as other kinds of non-profit organizations), and working to handicap and sabotage many organizations doing important environmental work. Citibank has reported receiving orders from the FBI to freeze the accounts of environmental organizations that received completely legal grants for environmental work under Biden. The FBI is claiming this was “fraud.” The New York Times has reported that Trump might designate environmental organizations as “terrorist organizations”—an even further escalation of the repression.

These measures are an ominous part of the overall fascist moves to shred fundamental rights of expression and protest. They must be opposed and defeated. 

What MAGA Fascism Is Doing to the Environment Is Not a Departure From, but an Extreme Expression of, What Capitalism Has Always Done

The capitalist-imperialist system globally has plundered the environment and been utterly destructive of global ecosystems. The U.S. has led the way in sending more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other power—and both Democrats and Republicans have been all in every step of the way on this. Again, this is a system problem: a system based on exploitation, on the competitive drive for profit, and that treats nature as a “cost-free” input into production for profit. 

Years ago the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian laid bare the truth about capitalism and the environment:

This system and those who rule over it are not capable of carrying out economic development to meet the needs of the people now, while balancing that with the needs of future generations and requirements of safeguarding the environment. They care nothing for the rich diversity of the earth and its species, for the treasures this contains, except when and where they can turn this into profit for themselves.... These people are not fit to be the caretakers of the earth. (BAsics 1:29)

We need and we demand a whole new and radically different and much better world! We need a revolution so humanity can leap beyond this world where fascism can come to power, unleash even more reckless exploitation of the planet, assault scientific understanding of reality, and threaten the entire planet and humanity’s future. 

AND WE MUST DEFEAT THIS MAGA FASCISM—TRUMP MUST GO, NOW!

The urgent need right now is to fight against the fascist acceleration of climate change and the assault on climate science—both inside the institutions where all this is being carried out, in the public square, and in the streets. And this must be linked to and become part of a massive rising of the people to defeat MAGA fascism NOW!

And this is also a time to raise people's sights and prepare the ground for the revolution to put an end to this system, to create a society and world in which human beings can actually become fit caretakers of our planet. That vision and plan is set forth in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian.