It has felt like war. For a hundred days, since the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, we have been threatened and attacked by the Trump administration, which is attempting to dismantle, if not destroy, our country’s initiatives to address climate change. 

On the first day of his administration, Trump announced that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. And since Jan. 20, the administration has laid off more than 600 employees from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), blocked the enforcement of state laws passed to reduce the use of fossil fuels and announced that his administration will dismiss hundreds of scientists and experts who were working with the Global Change Research Program to prepare the next National Climate Assessment for the country. 

On May 1, Oliver Milman wrote a piece for The Guardian about the 145 actions – or what he refers to as “attacks on the environment” – by the president. In the first 100 days of the Trump administration’s drive to reverse federal policies protecting the environment, the president has declared that half of the country’s national forests can be cut down for timber and changed laws put in place to protect endangered species. 

“Blitzkrieg has hit protections in place for land, forests and wildlife, and will worsen the climate crisis,” stated Milman. 

In the hopes of building a wider conversation about climate change in our city, Climate>Duluth distributed a climate briefing to community leaders in Duluth on Earth Day, April 22. The briefing focused on three questions. 

Since the spring of 2018, what has happened with regards to climate change over the last seven years? 
Since the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, what has taken place in the first three months of the Trump administration? 

Given the current picture of and projected future challenges with climate change, along with the administration’s resistance and refusal to address climate change, how could the city of Duluth respond in the next five years? 

In the last seven years, CO2 levels and the annual average global temperatures have continued to rise. On July 10, 2021, the New York Times reported that June was the hottest June on record in North America. Between June 24-30, 1,238 temperature records were broken during daytime hours and another 1,503 records were broken during the nighttime around the U.S. Then on June 22, 2024, the Washington Post reported that there were 1,400 new high temperature records set around the planet. 

On Nov. 29, 2018, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released a report stating that 2017 atmospheric carbon dioxide levels had reached 405 parts per million (ppm); a level not seen in the last 3-5 million years. And then on December 22, 2024, the CO2 level reached a new high of 425.70 ppm. 
Duluth hit 97-98 degrees on Sept. 3, 2023. It was the highest temperature since 2006 and broke the previous high for Sept. 3, which was set in 1960. In January, 2024, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reported that 120 temperature records were broken in Minnesota in December. It was also reported that temperatures in the Upper Midwest region were about 30 degrees above normal. 

It feels like Duluth has to begin digging trenches on two different fronts. Trenches to protect ourselves with the growing number of challenges from climate change. And then another series of trenches to defend ourselves against a hostile government that doesn’t want to recognize or acknowledge the climate emergency. 

There have been cuts to staffing and funding to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs in Duluth and already one prominent environmental group in our city has lost several federal grants and is having its nonprofit legal status challenged. 

In his book The Evolutionary World: How Adaptation Explains Everything From Seashells To Civilization, geologist Geerat J. Vermeij explores the role of adaptation through the evolution process for various species. 

“The adaptations of organisms are the material expression of an evolved response to the predictable elements of their world,” stated Vermeij. 

At this critical moment, what will be our “evolved response” to the current predictable elements of the climate emergency and the Trump administration’s attacks on addressing climate change? 

Given the growing sense of urgency to address this climate emergency, and the Trump administration’s fight to deny the climate reality that we face everyday, it would appear that we need to continue building the community’s awareness of climate change as well as taking a more serious look at how our city will need to adapt in the coming years. 

How do we adapt to warmer temperatures and rising CO2 levels? How do we adapt to climate migrants moving to our city? How do we adapt to the Trump administration’s defunding and elimination of climate policies and programs? 

We need to come together to defend and protect ourselves not only from climate change but also from a president whose actions will definitely threaten our ability to create a more resilient, sustainable and environmentally just city.