Recent weeks have seen deadly, catastrophic flooding across the country. Our thoughts are with the families who have lost so much, from New Mexico, to Texas, to North Carolina. And our hearts are especially heavy knowing that these kinds of disasters are becoming all the more common because of climate change. Without action, they will keep getting more common and more dangerous. 

Despite this, Donald Trump is dragging us backward toward climate hell. He’s expanding federal support for polluting industries (which already receive lucrative subsidies) and tearing down our growing clean energy industry. At the same time, he’s defunding programs and infrastructure that are vital amid our changing climate. 

What we need instead is crystal clear: Funding for recovery, adaptation, and infrastructure, and, crucially, an end to the polluting industries that are wreaking havoc on our planet. 

Trump Is Kneecapping Our Ability to Adapt and Respond to Climate Change

When it comes to disasters, early warning is critical to get folks out of harm’s way. But Trump is slashing federal programs crucial to researching and predicting extreme weather. 

For example, the work of his “Department of Government Efficiency” led to many staff vacancies at the National Weather Service. The agency is down 600 employees from a high of 4000, including in Texas and in flood-prone areas across the country. With massive slashes to these services, more people will die in disasters they never saw coming. 

Trump’s staffing cuts have also hit the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), responsible for immediate aid in the aftermath of disasters and long-term recovery efforts. Since January, DOGE’s efforts have cut FEMA staff by a third (2,000 staff members). Less than a month before the Texas floods, Trump announced he was considering dismantling FEMA entirely.

Texas is a major recipient of disaster aid, and yet the state’s Governor has advocated for cutting down FEMA and handing states the bill for recovery. This is unconscionable in a world of increasingly catastrophic disasters too big and expensive for states to take on by themselves. To adapt and respond to our climate-changed world, robust federal funding is non-negotiable.

Trump is Leaving Our Water Supplies Vulnerable to Disaster

Without adaptation improvements, climate disasters will increasingly cut off our access to clean water. Floods contaminate our water supplies with toxic pollution and can overwhelm or shut down treatment plants. Last year, Hurricane Helene left Asheville, North Carolina without clean drinking water for months, in great part due to aging, outdated infrastructure.

Our water infrastructure — the pipes and drains and treatment plants that deliver clean, safe water to our taps — may need as much as $1 trillion for climate adaptation by 2050. 

Yet, Trump has proposed historic funding cuts to our water infrastructure. He wants to nearly eliminate the State Revolving Funds, the main avenue for federal funding to state and local water projects. 

These cuts will not only make our water less safe; they’ll make it more expensive, too. If federal dollars dry up, local water systems will raise already-high rates so that we, the customers, cover upgrades.

Expanding Dirty Energy Will Make Things Worse

While Trump decimates federal aid for climate adaptation and disaster response, he’s ramping up support for the very industries responsible for them. He’s declared a bogus “national energy emergency” to speed up fossil fuel drilling, and he’s issued orders to fast-track fossil fuel infrastructure projects. 

Recently, Trump’s Big Ugly Bill has mandated more oil and gas leases on public lands and waters, defunded clean energy and environmental justice programs, and gutted support for renewable energy. 

And he’s not only boosting dirty energy; he’s boosting energy-hungry industries that are increasing demand for fossil fuels. Trump has thrown his weight behind cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, two technologies that need so much energy, they’re reviving dying coal plants and partnering with Big Oil companies.

This is the exact opposite of what our planet needs right now. A complete transition from fossil fuels to renewables is paramount in slowing climate chaos. 

It’s also important to note that fossil fuels are more vulnerable to outages in extreme weather events. Transitioning to renewables not only helps us to fight climate change; it will keep life-saving electricity on during disasters.

Factory Farms: Even More Dangerous in the Flooding They Contribute To

Deadly flooding also recently hit North Carolina and New Mexico, two states with booming factory farm industries. These factory farms (hog and poultry in North Carolina, dairies in New Mexico) contribute directly to climate change. They’re a major source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that warms the climate 86 times as much as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. 

Factory farms also present a terrible danger to water quality and health, even more so during floods. These facilities, which cram as many as a million animals into tight confines, generate and store unimaginable amounts of manure. They store this manure in open pits, or “lagoons,” which can and have overflowed during storms. 

In 2018, Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina, and millions of gallons of waste spilled from lagoons and contaminated many of the state’s waterways. Such spills can pollute waterways and groundwater with agricultural chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and pathogens like E. coli. 

Factory farms don’t just contribute to these climate-fueled disasters; they make them even more dangerous for those caught in them. Now, after this month’s flash floods, North Carolina faces an “above normal” hurricane season that may bring even more devastation and factory farm flooding.

Trump’s budget cuts add salt to the wound. He’s proposed to slash the USDA National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) budget by 88%, which may affect a program to get North Carolina’s hog facilities out of floodplains.

Under the program, the state Department of Agriculture uses NRCS grants to buy conservation easements that would convert flood-prone land used for hog factory farms to more sustainable uses. But the program is already underfunded, and Trump’s cuts certainly aren’t helping.

Trump’s Cuts Are a Disaster All Their Own. Together, We Can Fight Them.

Flooding damage lasts long after the waters recede. Even if folks make it out with their homes and lives, they may face other problems, including unsafe drinking water and lost electricity during the hottest days of the year.

Donald Trump’s cruel policies will only make matters worse for communities that could soon face their own disaster. By one estimate, nearly 15 million homes in the U.S. face a substantial level of food risk.

We all deserve to feel safe in our communities and secure in the fact that, if something does go wrong, help will be on the way. Trump’s widespread government defunding and dismantling fly in the face of this. His policies pose massive risks to essential resources, our health, our safety, and our very lives. 

But right now, Congress is working to codify even more of Trump’s extreme agenda into law. Lawmakers are crafting spending legislation for the upcoming year to fund government agencies and their programs, with guidance from a Trump proposal. That proposal includes the deep cuts to the State Revolving Funds and the Natural Resources Conservation Service mentioned above, as well as cuts on renewables, climate research, and so much more. 

These recent floods are a dire warning about the importance of well-funded government and infrastructure, and our urgent need to end the industries wreaking havoc on our climate. In considering Trump’s draconian spending cuts, Congress is making life-or-death decisions. They need to choose life.