A story from the Tack magazine 2025.
Aside from the attacks on personal freedoms and equality, the 2025 Trump administration has made it its mission to rewind the progress made in previous years on addressing our impending climate disaster. A withdraw from the Paris Agreement and a stoppage in regulations requiring companies to disclose their climate information have both been products of this crusade against climate, as well as inquiries raising concerns about grants to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s that directly relate to global warming. This political action forgoes climate protection in the name of capitalist advancement.
From Mother Earth’s side of things, we’ve watched the effects of climate change alter thousands of lives this year. January saw two fires that “rank among the most deadly and destructive blazes in California history,” according to the New York Times. Together these two fires are responsible for destroying over 15,000 structures and killing at least 29 people. It’s not just the heat, either. The record-breaking snowfall of the American South that was cause for at least 11 deaths was caused by a polar vortex, the result of Arctic melting.
In my research, my concern was that the attitude towards our climate is what is slowly killing us. My (completely unscientific) belief was that the average American does not care about climate change. In reality, 72% of Americans believe that global warming will harm plants, animals, and future generations of people, according to George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication. In the same report, it shows that 59% of Americans understand that global warming is human-caused, and 47% believe people in the U.S. are currently being harmed by global warming.
This majority of believers and the population of concerned citizens should be enough to incite change in a democratic nation. The beliefs of the many should be heard by the few. Recent years showed that many Americans were ready to move in a direction in which we cared about our emissions, taught our children to recycle, and frothed at the mouth for items claiming recycled packaging.
The nuance of American opinion on climate changes comes from belief on what action should be taken and by whom. According to a 2023 study by Pew Research, 37% of Americans say addressing climate change should be a top priority for the government, and 34% said it’s an important issue with a lower priority. Approximately two thirds of Americans say that large businesses and corporations are doing too little to combat climate change.
From the same Pew Research study, political differences on climate action were contrasted. For Democrats, climate change is in the top half of priority issues, while it ranks second to last for Republicans. Our 2025 administration is capitalizing on these polarized views on climate, knowing that they can use other big-ticket items to draw voters in. We’ve sacrificed our climate for the belief that we can build a stronger, more dominant economy when we’re not concerning ourselves about carbon footprints.
Some people may say that political decisions are all about sacrifice: to gain one thing, we must prioritize it over another. How sustainable will our economy be, though, if factories burn and power grids fail? Will our piles of wealth be worth it when our masks struggle to filter the toxins out of the air we breathe?
The bottom line is this: without caring for our climate and ecosystem, without channeling the rage of a dying Mother Earth, no wonder we create will be worth it, because there will be nobody left to worship it. Our administration, our so-called King of Kings, will call upon us to look upon his works and despair. But when the future comes, the lone and level sands will stretch away on our poor, discarded Earth. Nothing beside remains.
