Protecting America's Future
Climate change is real. The science is clear. And you don't have to be a liberal to believe that we should take care of the planet we live on. Environmental conservation used to be a bipartisan value—Richard Nixon created the EPA, Teddy Roosevelt built the national parks system. Somewhere along the way, one side decided that protecting the environment was a partisan issue. It's not. It's a common sense issue.
This isn't speculation or politics—it's measured, verified data from the world's leading scientific institutions. According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Earth's average surface temperature has risen approximately 1.3°C (2.3°F) above pre-industrial levels, with the rate of warming more than tripling since 1982. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 2010.
That warming is melting ice and raising oceans. Data from NOAA's sea level tracking shows global sea levels have risen 8–9 inches since 1880, with the rate accelerating from 1.4 mm/year in the early 20th century to over 4.6 mm/year in the most recent decade (2013–2022). That acceleration matters—coastal communities, military installations, and billions of dollars in infrastructure are directly threatened.
You can argue about policy solutions all day long. But you can't argue with thermometers, tide gauges, and satellite measurements. The data is unambiguous, and the longer we wait to act, the more expensive the solutions become.
We have to figure out how to conserve the rainforests in South America rather than promoting corrupt politicians like Jair Bolsonaro who accelerated their destruction. The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth and one of the most critical ecosystems for global biodiversity and climate regulation.
The scale of destruction is staggering. According to monitoring data from Brazil's INPE satellite program and Global Forest Watch, 2024 saw approximately 4.3 million acres of Amazon rainforest deforested—the fifth-highest annual total on record. Over 40 million acres burned in associated fires. While 2025 data shows some improvement under new leadership, decades of damage cannot be reversed quickly.
This isn't a political issue—it's a survival issue. There's a popular claim that the Amazon "produces 20% of the world's oxygen." That's a myth—scientists have shown that the Amazon's net contribution to atmospheric oxygen is essentially zero, because the forest consumes nearly as much oxygen through respiration and decomposition as it produces through photosynthesis. But that doesn't make the Amazon less critical. It stores an estimated 150–200 billion tons of carbon, and its destruction releases that carbon into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change for everyone on the planet. The Amazon is also one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, home to species we haven't even cataloged yet. Losing it would be an irreversible catastrophe.
If we can send billions in foreign aid around the world, we can invest in preserving the ecosystems that regulate our climate.
While the Amazon gets most of the headlines, the real threat to global oxygen production is happening in the oceans. Marine phytoplankton—microscopic algae floating at the surface—produce 50–80% of Earth's atmospheric oxygen. That's not a typo. The majority of the oxygen you're breathing right now came from the ocean, not from forests.
And that system is in trouble. Recent research published in Science Advances documents a long-term decline in ocean greenness and phytoplankton across low- and mid-latitude oceans between 2001 and 2023. Rising sea surface temperatures are strengthening ocean stratification—warm water sitting on top of cold water like a lid—which suppresses the nutrient upwelling that phytoplankton need to grow. As the water gets warmer, the mix of algae species shifts toward less productive varieties, reducing both oxygen production and CO2 absorption.
This is the environmental crisis almost nobody is talking about. If phytoplankton populations continue to decline, the consequences go far beyond oxygen—entire marine food chains collapse, fisheries that feed 3 billion people are threatened, and one of Earth's most important carbon sinks weakens at the exact moment we need it most. Protecting the oceans isn't a nice-to-have. It's existential.
Protecting the environment and powering a modern economy go together. We need smart energy policy that doesn't pretend fossil fuels will disappear overnight but also doesn't pretend renewable energy is some far-off fantasy—an all-of-the-above build-out of nuclear, hydro, solar, and wind, backed by a modernized grid. The countries that figure out clean energy first will dominate the next century's economy, and there's no reason that shouldn't be us.
And we need to protect our own backyard. Clean air, clean water, and protected public lands aren't luxuries—they're the birthright of every American. Rolling back environmental protections to score short-term economic points is borrowing from our children's future, and the bill always comes due.
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