Another year largely wasted, and whatever inadequate climate-mitigating gains were made at the federal level during the past four years will be erased by the Grab ’Em by the Genitals administration.

Science is having little effect on driving political policy — from neither Republicans nor Democrats — when it comes to addressing the climate crisis. It’s nearly impossible to make this emergency a political concern. We can’t hope to tech our way out of this problem. It’s more of a human and cultural one. It requires building public and political will. It requires trust. It requires a better collective understanding of and more respect for the natural world. We can’t keep making irreversible decisions when it comes to the environment and the natural resources we mindlessly poison and plunder.

In little more than a month, the Bankruptcy Bürgermeister who once suggested nuking hurricanes will return to the White House. He doesn’t care about you, me, or the environment. He doesn’t value science, or the truth. He says the climate crisis is a hoax. He and his stooges are returning to the nation’s capital to raid the public trust.

The Serial Liar has tabbed a fossil fuel industry executive to lead the Department of Energy. Chris Wright, a devoted defender of fossil fuels with an estimated net worth of $170 million, has denied the well-established connection between global heating and extreme weather. He has claimed storms aren’t getting more intense.

“We have seen no increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods despite endless fear-mongering of the media, politicians, and activists,” Wright, CEO of a Denver-based fracking company, said in a video posted on LinkedIn last year.

Science — and common sense — says otherwise. Every tenth of a degree of warming will lead to increased death. Going beyond 12 degrees Celsius (21.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming is a journey to an uninhabitable planet. The world could warm by a staggering 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century, according to a U.N. report published in October.

Climate change, at least to those who study it with academic rigor, is directly contributing to humanitarian emergencies, from heat waves and wildfires to increased flooding and prolonged droughts. The rate of global sea level rise, one of the most unambiguous indicators of climate change, has doubled during the past three decades. Also, as the planet heats, the atmosphere holds more moisture, meaning rainfall intensity increases.

On the other hand, Wright, who did graduate work in electrical engineering and has no science experience, promotes the farce that more fossil fuel production can lift people out of poverty.

In fact, the opposite is true.

Unless urgent action is taken to conserve water resources and end the destruction of the ecosystems on which fresh water depends, more than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failure within the next 25 years, according to a landmark report published in October. The authors noted a rapidly accelerating water crisis is gripping the planet.

The Global Commission on the Economics of Water noted half the world’s population already faces water scarcity, and that number is set to increase as the climate crisis worsens. The 223-page report noted demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40% by the end of this decade, because the world’s water systems are being put under “unprecedented stress.”

Reducing the burning of fossil fuels and, thus, greenhouse gas emissions, would improve human and environmental health, mostly through reduced air pollution. A junior-high science project could make that connection.

The direct damage costs to public health by the burning of fossil fuels is estimated to be between $2 billion and $4 billion annually by 2030.

Research shows that 3.6 billion people already live in areas highly susceptible to climate change. Between 2030 and 2050, the climate crisis is expected to cause some 250,000 additional deaths annually from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress alone.

If none of that concerns you, perhaps this will. Earlier this year scientists warned that ancient viruses, which they call “zombie viruses,” frozen in the Arctic permafrost could one day be released by Earth’s warming climate and unleash a major disease outbreak.

But with Wright thinking to be a staple in the Misogynist administration, I expect, by executive order, Earth Day to be renamed Carbon Dioxide Day, that coal will be the preferred stocking stuffer, and that all mentions of climate change will be scrubbed from government documents.

The choice of the Sexual Predator to lead the Environmental Protection Agency is a drill-baby-drill doozy. As a U.S. representative from New York, Lee Zeldin voted against extending the moratorium on offshore drilling on the Florida Gulf Coast and voted against a bill that would have protected the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from new oil and gas leases. His environmental experience basically amounts to having held an annual Teach a Kid to Fish Day as a state senator.

The former president oversaw the rollback of some 100 environmental rules the last time he golfed on the taxpayers’ dime. A new methane rule will never have a chance.

Last month the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule it hopes will reduce emissions of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases. Petroleum and gas facilities that emit 25,000 or more metric tons of greenhouse gases annually will have to pay a fee for methane emissions above their facility-specific thresholds. These fees will start this year at $900 per extra metric ton and increase to $1,500 per metric ton in 2026 and beyond.

The fossil fuel industry wastes or burns off huge amounts of methane every year. Methane accounts for about a third of all global-warming emissions.

The Insurrectionist-in-Chief has vowed to only leave a “little bit of the EPA” left “because you can’t destroy business.” He attempted to cut the federal agency’s budget by a third last time. He has called oil “liquid gold,” and has said oil, natural gas, and minerals such as lithium and copper should be exploited to the maximum extent possible.

An inspector general report released in September found that during his first term EPA scientists were encouraged to delete evidence of chemical harms. At least three scientists, when they objected, were removed from their roles, with supervisors calling dissenters “stupid” and “piranhas.”

To run the Department of the Interior and supervise drilling on federal land, Doug Burgum, a billionaire former software executive and real estate developer who has served as North Dakota’s governor since 2016, was chosen.

As governor, Burgum oversaw one of the most prolific oil and gas states, ranking third after Texas and New Mexico in oil production. He is a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, and helped organize the groveling dinner at Mar-a-Lago where the resident Grifter begged for $1 billion in campaign donations from oil and gas executives.

The playbook for the second term of They’re Eating the Pets president — Project 2025, an 887-page anti-government bible written by The Heritage Foundation — calls for rolling back drilling restrictions on public lands, easing regulations for new oil and methane projects, and reducing federal investment in renewable energy.

Project 2025 also calls for limiting the EPA and Department of the Interior’s ability to monitor greenhouse gas emissions and manage environmental pollutants and chemicals; scrapping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and privatizing the National Weather Service; ending efficiency guidelines for household appliances; and rolling back emission regulations for passenger vehicles.

All of this ignorance makes perfect sense if you listen to The Heritage Foundation’s director of energy, climate, and environment who, in a post headlined “Second Trump Administration Will Benefit Environment,” claims (ridiculously) that when the wannabe-dictator who likes to compare himself to Jesus Christ fulfills his campaign promises to increase U.S. oil and gas production, global emissions “will likely decline rather than rise.” Diana Furchtgott-Roth also twisted herself into a pretzel explaining how more exported natural gas will lower global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Nov. 19 post also noted the Criminal administration will encourage more natural gas production and faster permitting of pipelines and LNG terminals “to move the natural gas from the interior of the country to the ports, and into export terminals to be shipped to Europe and Asia.”

It also noted the energy plan for the Charity Robber Baron administration includes allowing different sources of energy to compete on a level playing field, opening more lands to natural gas development, and “reversing Biden’s climate agenda.”

(The fossil fuel industry has profited spectacularly from a playing field tilted in its favor for decades. Louisiana’s nine operating, under construction, and planned liquefied gas terminals are set to receive some $21 billion in local property tax exemptions if all facilities are completed.)

“Trump, unlike Biden, will not instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to slow down pipeline and liquid natural gas export terminal construction in the name of a transition to renewables,” Furchtgott-Roth wrote. “Nor will Trump instruct the Securities and Exchange Commission to discourage investment in pipelines, or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to discourage loans for fossil fuel projects.”

Of course, if this fossil fuel propaganda becomes policy, low-income communities and communities of color here and around the globe will shoulder the burnt of this increased heat-trapping pollution.

The U.S. business complex that isn’t controlled by the world’s most affluent will also feel the impacts of polluted air, water, and soil; sick workers; more intense hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, drought, and flooding; stressed communities; and ignorant, vengeful, and unethical people in positions of power largely because of inherited wealth.

(The total net worth of the officials in Biden’s Cabinet is about $118 million, U.S. News & World Report recently reported. The story estimated the worth of Trump’s roster of appointees to be at least $344 billion, more than the gross domestic product of 169 countries.)

Note: I began 2024 writing about the climate crisis. I spent much of the year documenting the importance of properly and urgently addressing this emergency. If we don’t solve this problem, nothing else really matters.

Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.