Trump administration’s fossil fuel surge pushes world toward brink of destruction – NJTODAY.NET

The United States’ rapid retreat from international climate cooperation, coupled with a renewed push to expand oil, gas, and coal, has meaningfully altered the planet’s trajectory. The result is a steeper, more perilous path toward dangerous warming at the very moment scientists say the window to limit catastrophe is closing.

A decisive turn away from climate action

In a single burst of policy moves, Washington pulled back from core climate commitments and bolstered fossil fuel interests. The administration formally exited the Paris Agreement—the central framework guiding global emissions cuts—and prioritized energy dominance at home and abroad. Alongside aggressive sanction regimes that reshaped control over Venezuelan oil revenues, the White House framed these steps as matters of national security and economic stability, even as they heightened global carbon risks.

Domestically, the policy barrage was unambiguous: efforts to revive coal, loosen pollution limits on power plants, open public lands and offshore areas to drilling, and saddle renewable energy projects with new obstacles. Methane safeguards were weakened, vehicle efficiency standards were softened, and environmental reviews were streamlined to speed fossil development. These actions together lock in higher emissions for years, widening the gap between today’s policies and the climate targets scientists say are essential.

Physics doesn’t negotiate

Climate science remains indifferent to political narratives. Global assessments indicate the world is still barreling toward a temperature rise on the order of 2.3 to 2.8 degrees Celsius by century’s end if current policies persist. The World Meteorological Organization warns there is a strong probability—on the order of four in five—that at least one of the next five years will temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

Every tenth of a degree matters. Push beyond 1.5°C and the risks compound: more relentless heatwaves, more punishing droughts, intensifying storms, and sea-level rise that strains coastal communities and infrastructure. Higher warming also amplifies ecological disruption, food and water insecurity, and climate-driven displacement. These aren’t distant hypotheticals—they are accelerating trends that translate into mounting losses and higher costs, year after year.

Cooking the books on costs and benefits

A shift in regulatory philosophy deepened the damage. Federal rulemaking moved to discount or sideline the public health benefits of reducing air pollution—such as avoided hospitalizations, lower mortality, and fewer missed workdays—while foregrounding industry compliance costs. By narrowing how benefits are counted, the government tilted decisions toward short-term savings for polluters at the expense of cleaner air and healthier communities. That calculus obscures the true ledger of climate and pollution harms borne by households, businesses, and taxpayers.

Strategic retreat, global consequences

Stepping back from collective climate efforts undercuts the fragile architecture of international cooperation. It also cedes economic advantage to competitors investing heavily in clean technology supply chains. Countries that scale solar, wind, batteries, and green hydrogen today are positioning themselves to dominate tomorrow’s markets; disengagement risks leaving the U.S. paying more for imported technologies and missing out on jobs and exports tied to the transition.

The geopolitical cost is matched by the climate cost. A major emitter pulling in the wrong direction raises the floor on global emissions, making it harder for others to close the gap. The consequences are painfully concrete: worsening wildfires, floods, and droughts that carry an unmistakable American imprint—disasters whose frequency and ferocity are shaped by cumulative choices.

The invoice arrives in lives and livelihoods

Beyond the headline numbers lies a more intimate reality: climate damage shows up in grocery aisles and insurance premiums, in freight delays and failing crops, in heat-stressed workers and asthma-afflicted children. Energy, food, transportation, and insurance all become more expensive as climate shocks ripple through supply chains and balance sheets. Ignoring these cascading costs doesn’t make them vanish; it just shifts the burden onto families and communities least able to absorb it.

The path to a safer climate remains technically achievable but politically narrowing. Rejoining robust international cooperation, restoring strong pollution standards, accelerating clean energy deployment, and protecting communities on the front lines are not abstract ideals—they are pragmatic steps to pare back risk. The longer decisive action is delayed, the steeper and more punitive the bill becomes.

The choices made during this period will echo for decades. Turn toward fossil fuels and away from cooperation, and the world edges closer to irreversible damage. Choose instead to align policy with physics and public health, and there is still time to blunt the worst impacts. One future is spiraling costs and chronic disaster; the other is a managed transition that safeguards lives, livelihoods, and a livable planet.