By Lori Lee
NDG Contributing Writer
As fires burn in Minnesota, crews are working to thin out forests—work that would have been done under a federal grant designated for thinning, clearing and creating firebreaks within high-risk forests. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) placed a stop on the forest management funds early in 2025 because they were climate-related. Amid subsequent Forest Service staff cuts, the funds were never released.
Now, over 64,000 acres are burning in Minnesota, with some fires spreading into Canada, where over 7 million acres have burned thus far. The resulting wildfire smoke drifting into the U.S. has triggered hazardous air quality across the Midwest and East Coast, noted Karen McKinnon at a July American Community Media briefing. McKinnon, a professor of statistics and the environment at the University of California, Los Angeles, researches climate extremes, variability and change.
The current administration recently blamed Canada for the fires, pointing to “willful negligence” in the management of its forests, the BBC reported. However, this stance contrasts with data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre evidencing an environmental crisis driven by climate change, with the last three years being the hottest in recorded history. Because warmer air holds more moisture, it rapidly pulls water from the ecosystem, turning leaves and pine needles into highly flammable tinder.
This domestic funding freeze reflects a broader federal campaign against green energy that has frozen billions in climate funding nationwide. Reports from Inside Climate News reveal the Trump administration has gone so far as to roll back Biden-era environmental legislation dating back to 2022. Instead of joining worldwide efforts at climate defense, the administration is spending billions of taxpayer dollars to actively reverse it—even pledging over $2.7 billion to buy back and cancel offshore wind leases across the United States, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
These persistent cuts have left scientists and environmentalists discouraged and scrambling to find alternative funds to continue their work. Yet, despite federal efforts to sideline climate research, escalating environmental realities are forcing the discussion. The global urgency is underscored by a deadly June heatwave in Europe that claimed over 10,000 lives, Reuters reported.
Closer to home, a massive domestic heat dome—which drove heat indexes to a stifling 115 degrees and forced the cancellation of Fourth of July parades and America’s 250th anniversary celebrations—is blamed for at least 69 deaths across the U.S. Health departments and medical examiner reports compiled by The Washington Post indicate that the early July heat wave ranks among the deadliest domestic weather events of the century.
The average person probably doesn’t think much of a 2-degree Celsius increase, noted McKinnon. Yet, experienced scientists understand that a 2-degree rise will dramatically intensify extreme weather and permanently alter ecosystems, making severe heatwaves 14 times more likely to occur, Active Sustainability reported.
Thus far, Earth’s average temperature increase remains below that threshold, rising by 1.2 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era, according to the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. Even still, weather patterns are already dramatically changing.
Beyond extreme temperatures, environmental scientists emphasize the distinct, everyday toll of industrial emissions. A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health found that all forms of pollution contribute to nine million deaths each year, representing one in six deaths worldwide.
Still, the administration has dismantled and attacked climate science as alarmist, The Guardian reported, putting Matthew Wielicki in charge of the U.S. Global Change Research Program despite his lack of climate science expertise.
The silver lining is that because global temperatures haven’t reached a two-degree increase, scientists believe many of these planetary changes remain reversible. Since cumulative carbon emissions are known to drive up global temperatures, McKinnon explained, reducing those emissions should, in turn, bring them back down.
To achieve these deep temperature reductions, experts argue the world not only needs research and development of technology to pull carbon directly from the atmosphere, but also structural changes to the global economy.
“I personally feel that we need to have the adaptation band-aid going on for a while as well, just to help people have safe and productive livelihoods,” McKinnon said. In the short term, she noted, this will mean an increased reliance on air conditioning despite its energy drawbacks, followed by long-term progressive reductions to the urban heat island effect through expanded tree cover.
One organization working to move the country away from fossil fuels is the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), represented at the briefing by Shina Robinson, its resilience projects director. Supporting initiatives like the California Equitable Decarbonization Program to transition homes to zero-emission technology, Robinson emphasized that successful climate policy must look beyond policy jargon to cut through to benefits that are important to people.
“I think that we’re trying to get to the values behind some of the climate policies that we fight for,” Robinson said. “Decarbonization is super important, but when we’re actually talking about it, we’re talking about health. We’re talking about cleaner air in homes. We’re talking about lower asthma rates.”
To put these values into practice, Robinson is guiding the transformation of the Lincoln Recreation Center in Oakland’s Chinatown into a model resilience hub. From seniors in the morning for tai chi, to table tennis, dance classes, snd after-school programs, the center serves about a thousand people daily.
The center is right now breaking ground on a new facility. Knowing the threats already affecting communities, the center is integrating rooftop solar, backup batteries and advanced air filtration to provide emergency services and a clean-air sanctuary for working-class families during disasters.
Developed by APEN, the project is becoming a model for localized climate defense to protect communities from environmental threats. The project offers a vibrant, active center that also supports the community socially.
Briefing speaker Mark Valentine explained that communities worldwide are facing a messy mix of economic, political and environmental threats all at once. To help, Valentine helped launch the Omega Resilience Awards. This program funds local leaders across developing nations who are fighting corporate exploitation of their natural resources while building their own neighborhood climate solutions.
While federal policymakers continue to stall climate funding, the reality of a warming planet is forcing communities to build networks. From the parched landscapes of Minnesota to community centers in California, climate defense is shifting from Washington politics to local neighborhoods.
As global leaders debate the economics of carbon reduction, local communities cannot afford to wait. Heroes in these communities are investing now in practical ways to cope to a quickly changing climate, while making incremental changes toward long-term sustainability.
