Trump is our King Canute

King Cnut (Canute) famously ordered the incoming tide to stop. It was an exercise in futility (to be fair, Cnut knew this and staged the event to prove that his royal power was worthless compared to the power of God).

Donald Trump is the modern King Cnut, pretending to order away climate change. Trump, however, lacks Cnut’s self-awareness; he seems to think that climate change denialism is his superpower to stand down the laws of physics.

“In 2009 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally declared that greenhouse gas emissions, including from vehicles and industry, endanger public health and welfare. The decision, known as the endangerment finding, was based on years of evidence, and it has underpinned EPA actions on climate change ever since.

 

“The Trump administration is now tearing up that finding as it tries to roll back climate regulations on everything from vehicles to industries.

 

“This is a big deal,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in announcing with President Donald Trump on Feb. 12, 2026, that the administration had “terminated” the endangerment finding. Zeldin argued that the finding had “no basis in law.” Trump, smiling next to him, talked about the benefits of fossil fuels and said the finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare “had no basis in fact. None whatsoever.”

Climate change isn’t going away, no matter how many time Trump calls it a hoax. Efforts are underway to challenge the Trump Administration in court, but meanwhile Trump is doing everything he can to prevent measures that could blunt environmental disaster.

 

https://www.juancole.com/2026/02/challenges-revocation-endangerment.html

 

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