Ideas

How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Power

And how to get it back

First published in The Atlantic on May 14, 2026.

by John Reid, The Atlantic
May 21, 2026 | reading time: 9 Min.

Donald Trump is the most anti-environment president since “environmentalism” emerged in America. He has rescinded the “endangerment finding,” meaning that the government no longer accepts the basic truth that climate change is bad for people. He is rolling back regulations that would have protected American skies and waters from pollutants such as mercury, arsenic, “forever chemicals,” soot, and methane. And he is working to demote conservation as a priority use for the 245 million acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

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