Environmental and Government News #7: 11/25/25

 Hello, and happy early Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates!

    One of the biggest pieces of news in the U.S. environmental politics scene, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Donald Trump administration is moving to overturn the 2024 ruling that lowered the allowable concentration of soot in the air from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter. This rule was initially designed to protect public health, especially youth and the elderly. This rollback is still in the process of happening, despite legal challenges from nearly 25 states and industry groups. This change is an extreme showing of the tension between environmental health regulation and industry. As we have seen in the past year, the administration has taken the latter's side 9 times out of 10. This time, however, it is public health that is being endangered, not just the environment. In my opinion, big change must come from this administration to prioritize the health of the environment, and most importantly, the health of the people. 

    In Australia, negotiations over the overhaul of national nature laws have been ongoing. The Australian Labor Party government is attempting to secure amendments to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999, by negotiating with the Greens and the Coalition. The Greens do not want provisions allowing fast-tracking of fossil fuel projects, and the coalition argues that the proposed law undermines investment and jobs. However much disagreement there is, this bipartisan negotiation is great for environmental law reform, and shows a willingness for compromise. Compromise is absolutely necessary when it comes to any real change happening in environmental politics. 

    Globally, the Cop30 summit happened in Brazil from November 10th to November 21st. Aimed to make big decisions on climate change, the summit was extremely promising. However, the US, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have now been nicknamed an "axis of obstruction", as they block progress on the climate crisis. Michael Jacobs, of the thinktank ODI Global and the University of Sheffield, said that the Cop30 summit revealed “an increasingly bitter conflict at the heart of global climate politics: between those who accept the scientific fact that to deal with climate change the world must wean itself off fossil fuels over the coming decades; and those who are actively resisting this in pursuit of their short-term energy interests”. It's insane to me how these massive countries with some of the smartest scientists in the entire world can have their leaders and representatives completely deny the effects of Climate Change. Its almost sad to me how they can prioritize economic and industrial priorities over that of the environment. Until there is major change in leadership or the dynamics of global negotiations, it is almost as if global environmental action is at a stalemate.



That's it for this issue. Hopefully I can come back with some more positive news next time!


Today's Environmental Fun Fact: Mangroves can filter up t o90% of the salt out of seawater.


Thank you for reading!!

~Oscar











Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/epa-soot-air-pollution-trump-zeldin-deregulation-d7df5b24a159284e96b12958a840c3d8

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/25/labors-attempts-to-woo-greens-and-coalition-on-nature-laws-revealed-amid-criticism-of-coin-toss

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