Without a research arm to support its regulatory arm, Americans will get sicker, and preventable deaths will go up. The EPA was started by (Republican!) President Richard Nixon in 1970. Some of its first regulations were to ban DDT and leaded gasoline, as well as the Clean Air and Water Acts.
Meanwhile, this adds to the thousands of out-of-work scientists in the US, public servants who have quietly served our nation for decades, saving lives and protecting our rights and freedom without pomp and circumstance, parades or holidays.
This is a good time to learn about your state-level EPA equivalent (in Maine, it’s the Department of Environmental Protection). In the absence of strong national leadership, state and local scales become critical. Work with local groups on strengthening state regulations.
In many red states, state, environmental agencies are only doing things because it’s mandated by the EPA. Without EPA oversight, many states will have lackluster environmental protections. :(
That’s true, the environment can be a cross-cutting issue (people who like fishing care about clean water, for example, and duck hunters have been instrumental in wetland protection). Montana has a clean environment clause in their constitution, and Texas has the fastest growth in wind energy.
Work with advocacy groups to bring lawsuits against polluters. Name, shame, and boycott polluters; undermine their social license to operate. Work with your state legislature to have the right to a clean environment enshrined in your state constitution, enabling lawsuits against them when they fail.
We’re in it for the long-haul, babes. Focusing on electoral politics every four years isn’t enough. Protests are important but they have to be promises (as @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social says). If the environment is your thing, get local. Find an existing group and a friendly legislator and pitch in.
To be fair, I feel sorry for everyone losing their jobs, but having Trump's EPA hire new Heritage Foundation "scientists" to make up fake studies would be worse than no studies at all.
One of the reasons I became a researcher is because it is how we know what is causing a problem and the best way to address it before it becomes a disaster. Eliminating environmental R & D means we will drive blindly into environmental catastrophe.