We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way.

—revolutionary leader, Bob Avakian

This quote screamed out last week. The Trump regime stepped on the gas in a course that will “help” send humanity—and countless other species—all the way over the cliff into extinction.

Last week Lee Zeldin, Trump’s head of the Environmental “Protection” Agency (EPA), announced that he was revoking the scientific finding that greenhouse gases—gases that come from the burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal for cars, power plants, etc.—endanger the environment. This finding of fact in 2009 formed the legal basis for national regulations that limit companies in how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases they emit. 

These gases trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and are the top causes of global climate change, like rising temperatures. The rising temperatures, in turn, help cause widespread forest fires, murderous heat waves in many parts of the world, the increasingly frequent major storms, and other violent fluctuations of the weather.

This science-denying move will have major horrific consequences. The legal finding that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health was made in 2009 on the basis of extensive scientific evidence.¹  This gave the EPA authority to make rules limiting emissions of those gases. 

By now declaring that scientific finding to be null and void, the Trump/MAGA fascists are trying to blatantly deny the reality of climate change. The government will no longer set any limits on carbon dioxide, methane, and other pollutants spewing out of cars as well as power plants, factories, oil and gas wells, and more. But reality is reality—the temperatures will now go up even more quickly, and precious time is being squandered. 

Devastating Effects for the Eight Billion People on Earth

America has already done terrible damage to nature. America is #1 for injecting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other country in history. America is #1 in producing oil and gas. And the U.S. military is the world’s #1 institutional user of fossil fuels. So this new move by the Trump regime will make things far worse not just in this country but worldwide. 

Zeldin’s EPA justified the rule change by referring to a new report from the Energy Department. This new report goes against the consensus among most scientists around the world about the reality and danger of climate change. So Trump hired scientists who are well-known to be “climate change skeptics” and fired hundreds of scientists working on the National Climate Assessment, the main U.S. report on what is happening with climate change.   

Scientific evidence for the existential dangers posed by climate change has only gotten clearer and more extensive in the years since the endangerment finding was made. 2024 was the hottest year on record for our planet. Glaciers are melting, seas are rising, forest fires rage, and destructive storms of all kinds are intensifying. Climate change is real. And global warming is driven by the system that dominates the planet, capitalism-imperialism. (To go deeper into this, see the revcom.us Special Resource Page “Capitalism-Imperialism Is Destroying the Planet... Only Revolution Gives Humanity a Real Chance to Save It.”)

The dismantling of the EPA is part of the wholesale assault on the environment that Trump began on day one of his regime. There is an urgent need to fight against this fascist acceleration of climate change and the attacks on climate science and scientists—inside the institutions where this is being carried out,² in the streets, and in all corners of society. And this fight must be much more strongly linked to, and become part of, a massive rising of people demanding that the Trump fascist regime must go NOW!