The Interplay between Climate Change Skepticism and Anti-Environmentalism in United States: A Critical Analysis of Trump’s Era

Abstract

Climate change is a global security threat as emphasized by climate scientists and revealed by climate-related disasters all over the world. However, in the United States, right-wing political leadership along with contrarian scientists, conservative think-tanks as well as media powered by the fossil fuel industries propagate climate change skepticism. This study demonstrates how climate skeptic machinery in the US has gained strength over time in the backdrop of growing anti-environmentalism. It particularly focuses on Trump’s era; marking how Trump administration and its policies clearly denied the existence of climate crises. It lays emphasis on Trump’s speeches and policies against climate change including appointment of anti-environmentalists to key positions, weakening the environmental laws, initiating environmentally damaging projects, withdrawing US from the Paris Agreement, cutting NASA’s climate monitoring program and dropping climate change as a national security threat.