🌎 Climate, Wildlife & Our Public Lands
What is happening, why it matters, and what you can do.
The environment is not a separate political issue. Food, drinking water, health, housing, insurance, energy, extreme weather, wildlife, agriculture, and the economy all depend on functioning natural systems.
And the climate situation has become more serious.
In September 2026, a new UN Environment Programme report concluded that the world is now set to cross 1.5°C of warming, likely within the next few years. The UN stressed that this does not mean action is pointless: how far temperatures rise above 1.5°C and how long they remain there will determine how much additional damage occurs.
Every fraction of a degree matters.
🌡️ First: Global Warming Is Real
This is not a matter of political belief.
Greenhouse gases trap heat. Human activity—especially burning coal, oil and natural gas—has substantially increased atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations and is warming Earth.
The UN notes that the world has just experienced the 11 hottest years on record. The WMO estimates a 91% chance that at least one year between 2026–2030 temporarily exceeds 1.5°C above the preindustrial average.
Learn the science:
NASA — Evidence for Climate Change
United Nations — Climate Change Explained
UN — Causes & Effects of Climate Change
🚨 What Is Happening Right Now?
🌡️ 1. The World Is Approaching the 1.5°C Threshold
The September 2026 UNEP report says crossing 1.5°C is now likely.
Going above it increases risks involving:
🔥 Extreme heat
🌊 Sea-level rise
🌧️ Flooding
🔥 Wildfires
🌾 Food production
💧 Water security
🪸 Coral reefs
🧊 Ice sheets
🌳 Forests
🐾 Biodiversity
The UN warns that higher and longer overshoot increases the risk of irreversible planetary tipping points.
Learn: Read the new UNEP findings
🚗 2. The U.S. Eliminated a Major Greenhouse-Gas Regulatory Foundation
In February 2026, the Trump administration's EPA rescinded the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and eliminated federal greenhouse-gas emission standards for highway vehicles and engines.
The administration argues the Clean Air Act does not give EPA the authority previously claimed and says the change will substantially reduce regulatory costs.
But the practical consequence is enormous: manufacturers no longer have those federal obligations to measure, control and report vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions under those rules.
See it yourself: EPA — 2026 Final Rule
🏭 3. Power-Plant Climate Rules Are Being Rolled Back
On September 14, 2026, EPA announced the repeal of Biden-era carbon-emission limits for coal- and gas-fired power plants.
The administration argues the rules imposed unnecessary costs and exceeded EPA authority. Environmental groups argue eliminating them removes important controls on emissions from one of America's largest greenhouse-gas sources.
Act: Track EPA rulemaking and submit comments when environmental regulations are open.
🛢️ 4. Oil & Gas Development Is Expanding
The Trump administration has made expanded domestic fossil-fuel production an explicit policy priority.
Actions include reopening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing, expanding other Alaska resource development, lowering federal onshore oil-and-gas royalty rates, and proposing changes intended to facilitate Arctic offshore exploration.
The administration argues this strengthens energy security, creates economic opportunities and lowers costs.
The environmental tradeoff is that burning additional fossil fuels produces additional greenhouse gases, while extraction can also affect habitat and ecosystems.
Track federal land decisions: Department of the Interior
🏜️ 5. Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante Were Drastically Reduced
In July 2026, President Trump reduced:
Bears Ears National Monument: ~1.36 million → ~121,100 acres
Grand Staircase-Escalante: ~1.87 million → ~181,500 acres.
The excluded Grand Staircase lands can become available, subject to applicable law and existing rights, for public-land disposition, mineral/geothermal leasing and mining.
These landscapes also contain important ecological, paleontological and Indigenous cultural resources.
See the actual presidential action: Grand Staircase-Escalante Proclamation
🌲 6. Nearly 59 Million Acres of Roadless Forest Are at Issue
The administration has proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which restricts road construction, logging and other development across roughly 59 million acres of national forest.
The administration argues local forest managers need more flexibility for wildfire prevention and forest management.
Opponents warn removing the nationwide protections could expose enormous areas of relatively undeveloped forest to roads, logging and development.
Forests aren't just scenery.
They store carbon, protect watersheds, provide wildlife habitat and influence local climate.
⛏️ 7. Previously Protected Federal Lands Are Being Reopened
In April 2026, Trump signed legislation eliminating a 20-year mineral and geothermal leasing withdrawal covering approximately 225,504 acres of National Forest lands in Minnesota.
The administration has also opened approximately 2.1 million acres in Alaska's Dalton Corridor to entry under public-land and mining laws.
Act: Follow proposed federal land-management decisions through the agencies controlling the land.
🐺 8. Wolves & Predator Protections
Wolves matter because predators help regulate entire ecosystems.
Gray wolves remain federally protected across much of the Lower 48, although protections vary geographically.
Alaska is also revisiting rules governing sport hunting and trapping in national preserves, including rules involving wolves, coyotes, bears and predator-management practices. Previous federal protections specifically prohibited killing wolves and coyotes—including pups—during denning season and several controversial bear-hunting practices.
Why wolves matter:
Predators influence prey populations, animal behavior and broader food webs.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service — Gray Wolves
🦅 9. Endangered Species Protections Have Been Weakened
In July 2026, the administration finalized changes to implementation of the Endangered Species Act.
Changes include eliminating automatic “blanket” protections for newly listed threatened species and changing how economic and other considerations enter critical-habitat decisions.
Twenty states and Washington, D.C. sued the administration in September, arguing that the new rules unlawfully weaken protections. The administration says the changes restore the law's original meaning and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens.
Learn/Act: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service — Endangered Species
🏗️ 10. Environmental Reviews Are Being Streamlined
The National Environmental Policy Act—NEPA—is one of the major mechanisms requiring federal agencies to examine environmental consequences before major federal actions.
In February 2026, Interior finalized sweeping revisions to its NEPA procedures after rescinding more than 80% of its prior NEPA regulations.
The administration says this removes bureaucratic delay and accelerates infrastructure and resource development.
The underlying concern is straightforward:
Faster approval can be useful—but environmental damage doesn't become less real because government reviews it faster.
💧 11. Water Is an Environmental Issue Too
Watch locally for:
PFAS contamination
Industrial pollution
Agricultural runoff
Development near watersheds
Data-center water consumption
Mining
Wetland destruction
Stormwater runoff
Aging drinking-water infrastructure
Your drinking water begins in an ecosystem.
Check your water: EPA — Drinking Water Information
🐝 12. Biodiversity Loss Matters
Climate change is only one environmental crisis.
Habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, exploitation and climate change are collectively putting enormous pressure on biodiversity.
Losing species isn't simply sad.
Healthy ecosystems provide:
🌾 Pollination
💧 Water purification
🌳 Carbon storage
🌱 Soil health
🐟 Food
🌊 Flood protection
🧬 Genetic diversity
Humans are inside the ecosystem—not separate from it.
🌱 What Can I Actually Do?
You do not need to personally solve climate change.
Federal decisions
Find your representatives and tell them what environmental policies you want supported or opposed.
Find Your Federal Representatives
Federal regulations
Watch for proposed environmental rules and submit public comments.
Public lands
Track proposed drilling, mining, logging and land-management decisions.
National Park Service Planning
Wildlife
Follow endangered-species listings, habitat decisions and wildlife regulations.
Your community
Watch your own:
City council → County commission → Planning commission → Water authority → Development authority → State legislature
for decisions involving:
Data centers, forests, development, roads, water, parks, energy and protected land.
🧠 Don't Believe Us About Global Warming?
Seriously.
Learn it from the institutions actually measuring the planet.
NASA — Climate Change Evidence
World Meteorological Organization
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
These organizations use temperature measurements, satellites, ocean observations, ice measurements, atmospheric chemistry, paleoclimate records and independent scientific research.
You don't have to trust a political party to understand climate change.
Look at the measurements.
The Bigger Picture
More fossil fuels
→ more greenhouse-gas emissions
→ more warming
→ greater extreme-weather and ecosystem risks
while simultaneously:
Habitat loss + pollution + extraction + development
→ declining biodiversity
→ weaker ecosystems
→ less natural resilience to climate change.
These aren't separate environmental stories.
They're interacting parts of the same system.
And the new UN message is important because it is not:
“We're doomed.”
It is:
We are likely to cross 1.5°C. Every additional fraction of warming makes the consequences worse. What humanity does now still determines how bad this becomes.
Learn the science. Watch the decisions. Protect what cannot easily be rebuilt. Show up before the vote.