This Week on Earth: April 29-May 5

Ducks off Clark St. Beach at Sunset. (Arthi Venkatesh/ION)

United States 

During his campaign, President Donald Trump promised to place “America First” by repealing the Biden administration’s environmental policies. He has delivered on his promises in full force in the first 100 days of his second term, signing a staggering 141 executive orders, many of which may cause environmental devastation at home and abroad. 

Immediately after his inauguration, Trump began the process to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. This effectively ended American cooperation in the global fight against climate change, even though the U.S. is the second-largest producer of carbon emissions. That same day, he declared a national energy emergency to expedite energy infrastructure projects and sidestep environmental regulations. Trump argued that the U.S.’s “precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply” threatens the economy and national security despite fossil fuel use reaching record levels under the Biden administration. 

The EPA has also suffered massive cuts in budget and manpower. Two months ago, administrator Lee Zeldin announced that he plans to slash up to 65% of the EPA’s total spending. Over 1,000 workers have already been laid off. Thousands more will follow, based on the agency’s Friday announcement that its goal is to reduce staffing to levels not seen since the Reagan era of the 1980s. The EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which has led critical research on PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” and greenhouse gases, is also slated to be dismantled. 

Many of Trump’s efforts to roll back environmental protections are expected to stall in court, but damage is still being done from inaction while legal battles take place. 

“The result will be fewer environmental protections and more people suffering the public health consequences of more pollution,” said Michael Burger, a climate law expert at Columbia University in an interview with the Guardian.

Mexico

Last Monday, the USDA announced that the U.S. and Mexico had reached a deal in which Mexico would send water from the Rio Grande to Texas farmers suffering from drought. Trump has accused Mexico of “stealing the water” and forced Mexico’s hand by threatening tariffs.

Since 1944, the U.S. and Mexico have participated in an agreement that regulates water sharing along their border. Under the treaty, the U.S. is required to deliver Colorado River water to the Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora, with Mexico supplying water to Texas along the Rio Grande. Mexico has been struggling to meet its obligations to Texas, reducing and postponing deliveries due to claims of extreme drought. 

Although agriculture advocates praised Trump’s tough stance, long-term outcomes of this new agreement remain to be seen. Previous disputes have been settled through negotiations by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), a bilateral body founded to address the transboundary water issues. Trump’s severe approach may set an uncertain precedent for future water diplomacy. 

South Africa

In the age of rising sea levels due to melting polar ice, many fear that coastal cities and islands will one day be submerged. South Africa has proven to be a curious exception—since about 2012, its land has been rising out of the ocean. The previously accepted explanation was that mantle plumes on the seafloor pushed land up by ejecting molten rock, but researchers at the University of Bonn recently realized the truth: the rising crust is caused by drought. 

The researchers explained that the Earth’s crust behaves like a sponge. When land is saturated with water from normal hydrologic cycles, it weighs more and compresses itself. After long periods of drought, that water disappears, allowing the crust to bounce back up. 

With this new understanding, droughts can now be studied more effectively using Global Navigation Satellite Systems, which were responsible for the discovery. Droughts were traditionally tracked by satellites, but South Africa’s GNSS stations can measure underground water reserves that cannot be seen by satellites. 

“This effect can be used to record the extent of a drought more precisely than ever before – using a method that is comparatively inexpensive and requires less effort,” Christian Mielke, one of the scientists involved in the study, told Earth.com.