They’ve Opted Out. We’re Opting In.

As deregulation, climate change denialism, and wealth influence grows, the EPA is quietly deleting the study that confirmed their mission.

This week, news broke that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has drafted a plan to revoke the very scientific foundation of America’s climate policy. According to The New York Times, the agency is preparing to eliminate the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the legal recognition that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to human health and life on Earth.

This move, if finalized, would end the EPA’s ability to regulate CO₂, methane, and other pollutants under the Clean Air Act. It’s not a revision. It’s a scorched-earth rollback, the regulatory equivalent of deleting climate science from the American legal system.

And it didn’t come out of nowhere.

This latest action, spearheaded by a fossil-fueled political machine, is just the newest chapter in a decades-long effort to undermine science, delay progress, and protect corporate polluters at all costs.

The Science Has Always Been Clear

We’ve known greenhouse gases trap heat since the 1800s.
We’ve had global climate models since the 1960s.
We’ve had irrefutable evidence — rising seas, dying ecosystems, unbreathable air — for decades.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA was legally obligated to assess whether greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. That ruling, Massachusetts v. EPA, led directly to the 2009 finding. This wasn’t partisan. It was the law.

And for a brief moment in the late ’80s, and again in the early 2000s, climate change wasn’t partisan at all. George H.W. Bush called for action. John McCain proposed bipartisan climate bills. Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi even filmed a joint ad urging the nation to act. We were so close to choosing progress.

But instead, disinformation took root. Lobbying dollars poured in. The climate fight has become a political fault line. And now, the agency tasked with protecting the planet is being used to undermine its own reason for existence.

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A Billionaire Class That Chose Collapse

This didn’t have to happen.

By the 1980s, fossil fuel giants such as Exxon and Shell were aware of the impact their emissions were having on the planet. They had decades to pivot, to lead the clean energy revolution, invest in climate solutions, and prepare the world for a sustainable future.

Instead, they spent billions funding disinformation campaigns, buying political influence, and delaying action, all to protect short-term profits. Some of the elite, like Peter Thiel, even went further: acquiring land in remote countries, building luxury doomsday bunkers, and asking how they could control their staff after global collapse.

Let that sink in.

With all their wealth and power, they’re not trying to save the world.
They’re trying to survive its end, alone, underground, forever.

And Trump? His every policy has hastened the disaster. See our reporting here:

From Rome to Flint: 2,000 Years of Lead and Neglect

Poison Profit: Trump’s War on the Environment

Trump’s EPA Massacre: Climate Protections in Freefall

Deregulation Nation: Climate Collapse by Design

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This Isn’t Just Negligence. It’s Treason Against the Future.

They could have helped. They still could. But they’ve chosen to opt out — of community, of morality, of responsibility.

They are hoarding food while others starve.
They are sabotaging the planet while plotting their escape.
They are blocking progress while planning to rule what’s left.

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But Here’s the Truth: They Don’t Get to Decide the Future Alone.

They may have bunkers. We have each other.
They may have billions. We have billions more voices.
They may buy influence. But we build movements.

So let them hide. Let them lock their vaults and bury their secrets.
We’ll stay aboveground planting, rebuilding, resisting, and rising.

They’ve opted out. But we’re opting in — to each other, to the Earth, and to the fight for a future worth living in.

Take Action

• Demand the EPA keep the Endangerment Finding. Submit a public comment when the draft is released.

• Call your representatives. Tell them climate denial in government is unacceptable. Encourage them to reinstate regulation.

• Support grassroots climate orgs fighting this rollback; frontline voices need amplification.

• Share this story. If they’re trying to bury the science, we need to make it louder.

This isn’t just policy. It’s your air, your water, your world.
They’ve given up on the future. We haven’t. Let’s prove it.

Bibliography:

• “EPA drafts rule to strike down landmark climate finding.” Washington Post, July 23, 2025.

• “EPA to withdraw foundation of greenhouse gas rules, sources say.” Reuters, July 23, 2025.

• Friedman, Lisa. “Democrats Designed the Climate Law to Be a Game Changer. Here’s How.” Society of Environmental Journalists, August 22, 2022.

• “EPA urges White House to strike down landmark climate finding.” Washington Post, February 26, 2025.

• Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, 549 U.S. 497 (2007). Wikipedia.

• Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, 549 U.S. 497 (2007) Supreme Court of the United States.

• “WeCanSolveIt.org Ad – Gingrich & Pelosi.” Politico, May 13, 2011.

• “Political positions of Newt Gingrich.” Wikipedia. Last modified 2025.

• “Timeline: The Politics of Climate Change.” PBS Frontline, October 23, 2012.

• Rushkoff, Douglas. Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires. Portland, OR: OR Books, 2022.

• O’Connell, Mark. “Why Silicon Valley Billionaires Are Prepping for the Apocalypse in New Zealand.” The Guardian, February 15, 2018.

• “Billionaires Are Building Luxury Bunkers to Escape Doomsday.” VICE, May 31, 2024.