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Top headlines
Lead story
President Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders in his first hours back in the Oval Office aimed at undoing U.S. climate policies and boosting the fossil fuel industry.
After four years of Biden administration policies that sought to slow the pace of climate change, Trump’s actions sent the pendulum of U.S. climate actions swinging sharply back in the opposite direction once again, writes Joe Árvai, director of the Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Southern California.
It wasn’t always like this. Árvai explains how America got to this point, and how money, lies and even the creation of red vs. blue states have influenced politics and played on human psychology to make climate change a partisan issue.
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Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel positions stand in sharp contrast with efforts to protect the climate.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Joe Árvai, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The climate policy pendulum is swinging back again with Trump in office. Money, lobbying and talking about red vs. blue states all play a role in the political and public divide.
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Economy + Business
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Daniel Feller, University of Tennessee
By warning of the threat oligarchy poses to the country, President Joe Biden tapped into a Democratic Party tradition begun in the mid-19th century.
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Ethics + Religion
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Kerby Goff, Rice University; Eric Silver, Penn State; John Iceland, Penn State
Support and opposition to Christian nationalism are linked to people’s moral values more than religious, racial and political tribalism.
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Politics + Society
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Carol Nackenoff, Swarthmore College; Julie Novkov, University at Albany, State University of New York
Since the earliest days of the nation, any person born on US soil is a US citizen.
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Richie Zweigenhaft, Guilford College
A long-running pickup game in North Carolina – made up of ‘geezers’ with various political leanings – thrives by reducing conflict.
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Shawhin Roudbari, University of Colorado Boulder; Shideh Dashti, University of Colorado Boulder
More than 65% of formerly incarcerated people reported experiencing climate-related hazards, according to survey results.
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Ernesto Castañeda, American University; Daniel Jenks, University of Pennsylvania
Immigration scholars break down some of the immigration terms that are likely to become common during the Trump administration’s first months.
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Science + Technology
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Jeremy P. Shapiro, Case Western Reserve University
Politics in America have become more upsetting than ever for big chunks of the population, but there are ways to cope.
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Louis Shekhtman, Bar-Ilan University
Nearly 40% of all gifts and grants and 60% of the total number of dollars given backed initiatives based in the foundation’s own state.
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Chiara Longoni, Bocconi University; Gil Appel, George Washington University; Stephanie Tully, University of Southern California
People with less AI literacy often see the technology as ‘magical’ and awe-inspiring.
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Environment + Energy
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Stephen Pyne, Arizona State University
Humans have become a geologic force by cooking the planet – using fire on a scale that is altering land, water, air and ecosystems.
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