True to form, Donald Trump didn’t waste a second in unleashing a fresh round of controversy at his January 20 inauguration as the forty-seventh President of the US, marking his return to the White House after a four-year interlude. But for those who have experienced the impacts of climate change first-hand, his most egregious acts were his swift revocation of an electric vehicle mandate and a vow to “drill, baby, drill”.

It was as if, within a few minutes of returning to power – his speech lasted a mere 30 minutes – he had glanced at the smouldering state of the world and, shrugging, mumbled: “Who needs the planet, anyway?”

For the uninitiated, ‘Drill, baby, drill’ was a 2008 Republican campaign slogan first used at that year’s Republican National Convention by former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele, who later became chairperson of the Republican National Committee. It expressed support for increased drilling for oil and gas as sources of additional energy and gained further prominence after it was used by Sarah Palin, the Republican Party’s Vice Presidential candidate, during the Vice Presidential debate.

Trump himself used the phrase repeatedly in the lead-up to the November 2024 election, which swept him to power. He reiterated it on January 20, when he announced he would immediately sign a declaration of a national energy emergency, which provides for accelerated permitting for fossil-fuel-based energy projects, including pipelines and power plants. His energy plan also includes opening up the state of Alaska, which is rich in oil and gas, to exploration and extraction.

Trump’s Earth-unfriendly pronouncements came on the heels of a new report from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which revealed that the planet experienced its first full year of temperatures exceeding 1.5 ºC above preindustrial times in 2024.

According to C3S, the planet’s average temperature last year was 1.6 ºC higher than during the 1850-to-1900 period – the preindustrial era, before humans started burning fossil fuels on a large scale.

Scientists from C3S were quick to point out that the 1.5 ºC global warming threshold stipulated in the Paris Agreement has not been permanently breached. But they warned we are drawing dangerously close to that level. Indeed, every month in 2024 was the warmest or second warmest for that month since records began.

This warming trend was also confirmed by data from the UK’s Met Office – also released this month – which showed a slightly lower average increase of 1.53 ºC last year.

Everyone – except dyed-in-the-wool climate change denialists like Trump, who insists the phenomenon is a hoax – now agrees that the primary driver of climate-changing global warming is the accumulation in the atmosphere of greenhouse-gases (GHGs) from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

The effects of climate change have been visible on all continents, manifesting as torrential floods, prolonged droughts and extreme temperatures, among other impacts.

Even Trump’s backyard has not been spared. A recent sign that climate change is real came in the form of raging firestorms in California, which claimed ten lives. To give an idea of the enormity of the infernos, the state governor had to deploy 7 500 personnel, 1 162 fire engines, 31 helicopters and six water-tanker aircraft to combat them. What’s more, more than 100 000 people were forced to flee for safety.

One would think the fires, along with past devastating hurricanes – such as Katrina in 2005, which left $75-billion worth of damage in its wake – would shake the conviction of the climate change denialists. But, alas, no.

I am concerned that Trump’s stance may undermine the momentum we have built to slow global warming. Would anyone really fault a country in the developing world – which has contributed the least to climate change – for scaling back its commitment to cutting GHG emissions, now that one of the nations responsible for the lion’s share of emissions has vowed to march ahead without a care? I have heard some of the political leaders here in South Africa advance this very argument to justify why the country should continue relying on coal-fired electricity generation.

Trump’s return to the White House is bad news for Mother Earth.