In just the past few weeks, much of the optimism climate activists felt during the administration of President Joe Biden has evaporated, as President Donald Trump has quickly sought to undo climate protections and roll back investments in clean energy.
This weekend, a rally organized by the nationally based Climate Action Campaign drew about 200 people to Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park.
Speakers including U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D.-Swissvale) and Pittsburgh City Councilor Erika Strassburger exhorted Pittsburghers to push back against Trump’s climate policies and continue working toward creating new jobs, improving public health and safeguarding the environment.
“The tremendous progress that our country made on climate issues is at risk of being undone,” said Strassburger.
She referred in part to the federal Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provided billions of dollars to promote renewable energy, increase energy efficiency, and improve resilience against the coastal erosion and extreme weather with which climate change is associated.
“We brought investments into Western Pennsylvania that built a clean and resilient infrastructure, has begun the work to do that and create thousands of good paying jobs,” said Lee. “That’s at risk right now. Because people that are not tuned into our communities, our needs are at the helm right now.”
Scientists say climate change is largely the result of human-caused emissions of greenhouse gasses, especially from the burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal.
Rally attendees carried Climate Action Campaign signs that read “Climate Can’t Wait,” whose pattern of stripes running from deep blue to deep red charted the global rise in temperatures since 1850 when records were first kept.
On Jan. 10, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that 2024 was the world’s hottest year on record, and that Antarctic sea-ice coverage — another indicator of warming — was the second-lowest recorded, after only 2023. Moreover, NOAA noted, “The planet’s 10 warmest years since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade.”
Rising temperatures are associated with rising sea levels, higher tides and more frequent big storms, increasing the risk of flooding, landslides and other disasters.
“Climate change isn’t a distant threat,” said rally speaker Matt Shorraw, the former mayor of Monessen. “It’s here, and Pittsburgh is already feeling the effects.”
In his first few days in office, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, challenged the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions, and issued executive orders expanding offshore oil drilling and freezing unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, some of which were directed at climate and clean energy.
One possible casualty is the federal Solar for All program, which had begun to disburse $7 billion in grants to states, territories, tribal governments, municipalities and more to provide solar power to households in disadvantaged communities.
At the same time, speakers said, some federal investments are already moving forward. Shorraw referenced an $87 million Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grant to Mainspring Energy to expand the Allegheny County facility where it manufactures low-emissions linear generators.
But speakers at the rally, who also included Wilkinsburg borough councilor NaTisha Washington, emphasized that even while the Trump administration seeks to dismantle climate programs, action is possible locally.
“We cannot wait for Washington or Harrisburg to act,” Shorraw also emphasized. “The best way to build a resilient Pennsylvania is to take action in our own communities. Every home we weatherize, every solar panel we install, and every energy efficient upgrade we make strengthens our neighborhoods and protects the livelihoods of everyday people.”
The rally concluded with the unfurling of a 30-foot-long banner depicting the red-and-blue climate stripes.
The Climate Action Campaign is a national coalition of environmental, environmental justice and public-health groups including Center for American Progress, Earthjustice, Environment America, Environmental Defense Fund, League of Conservation Voters, National Hispanic Medical Association, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, U.S. Climate Action Network, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
