Climate Obstruction, the Dismantling of Environmental Justice, and the War on Wokeness

In the early months of Trump 2.0 we have seen the dismantling of federal environmental justice infrastructure and a rollback of climate initiatives. While the GOP has had four years to plan its policy assault, more was required to reach this point. Specifically, the GOP had to undermine public support for climate action and environmental justice. It did so by linking these issues to DEI. In this talk I document how the war on wokeness facilitated the Trump administration’s current attack on the environment. 

Typically, such deregulation is attributed to polluters, what is called, regulatory capture. Though certainly important, I argue that regulatory capture does not fully explain the current GOP’s climate obstruction, as it assumes a “nonracial state.” Instead, I suggest that white nationalism has actively contributed to this process.