The second term of Donald Trump as President of the United States has witnessed an unprecedented assault on the environment. The latest addition to the list is the Trump administration's decision to halt processing and providing crucial satellite data on the state of sea ice across the planet.
The first 100 days since he assumed office in January 2025 were full of issuing executive orders entirely antithetical to protecting clean air, water, and a livable climate.
Trump kicked off his second term by announcing the United States' withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, a global pact to mitigate climate change. This was followed by a slew of additional actions to end the nation's participation in international climate action.
Besides issuing an order for the US to leave the Paris Agreement on his first day in the White House on January 20, the Trump administration also crippled international climate finance by cutting aid.
Signing an executive order called 'Putting America First In International Environmental Agreements', the US President said, "In recent years, the United States has purported to join international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect our country’s values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives. Moreover, these agreements steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people."
"It is the policy of my Administration to put the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy. These agreements must not unduly or unfairly burden the United States", he further added.
Here, we have an account of the Trump administration's drastic clampdown on endeavours to mitigate the deadly consequences of the climate crisis.
US To Halt Sea Ice Data Sharing
In a latest clampdown on climate crisis-related research in the United States, the Trump administration is slated to stop processing and providing crucial data on sea ice. The data is pivotal to the scientists analysing the cascading impacts of record-low levels of the Antarctic Sea.
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), based at the University of Colorado, maintains a Sea Ice Index to track the near-real-time state of sea ice around the globe.
Quoting researchers around the globe, The Guardian reported that they were told last week that the US Department of Defence will stop processing and providing the data at the end of this month.
Monitoring the state of sea ice is imperative for scientists to comprehend the impacts of global warming on the planet.
Dr Alex Fraser, a co-author of the research at the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP) told The Guardian that NSIDC’s sea ice data was "our number one heart rate monitor" for the state of the planet’s ice.
"It’s our early warning system and tells us if the patient is about to flatline. We need this data, and now [the scientific community] will be forced to put together a record from a different instrument. We won’t have that continued context that we have had previously", Fraser further added.
Trump Withdraws From Paris Climate Agreement
In line with his antithetical stances on measures to mitigate the climate crisis, Donald Trump, on the day of his inauguration as the incoming US President for the second time, vowed to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
In his executive order, Trump said, "The United States Ambassador to the United Nations shall immediately submit formal written notification of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The notice shall be submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Depositary of the Agreement, attached as Appendix A. The United States will consider its withdrawal from the Agreement and any attendant obligations to be effective immediately upon this provision of notification."
Trump's decision came despite the US being the world's second-largest annual emitter of planet-warming gases. Back in 2017, he made a similar announcement at the start of his first presidency. His successor, Joe Biden, rejoined the climate deal in 2021.
US Shuts Down Hawaii Laboratory With Crucial Evidence Of Manmade Climate Change
The Trump administration’s latest budget indicated the closure of Hawaii's Mauna Loa laboratory, which has the most conclusive evidence of human-caused climate change since the 1950s, CNN reported.
As per reports, the laboratory measured atmospheric carbon dioxide, which directly contributed to climate change in several ways.
While the budget proposal also targets several other climate labs, the Mauna Loa laboratory is the most prominent one, as it houses measurements from 1958 showing an upward curve of the planet-warming gas owing to human activities.
US Shuts Down Website On climate change
In another drastic step, the Trump administration on Monday shut down a federal website that presented crucial reports and research on climate change.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program’s website, globalchange.gov, was taken down along with all five versions of the National Climate Assessment report and extensive information on how global warming is affecting the country.
Back in 1990, the US Global Change Research Program was established to prepare climate assessments every four years. In April, however, the Trump administration dismissed hundreds of scientists and other experts who had begun to write the latest National Climate Assessment report.
