As part of the the Trump administration's new national security plan, the team says it would stop recognizing climate change as a threat to national security.
Climate change was officially treated as a national security threat after former President Barack Obama signed a declaration directing the federal government to set aside resources to fix the problem. Obama argued that unless we did that, future disasters might be too costly and difficult for the military to tackle.
But President Donald Trump has wanted to undo those Obama-era climate change regulations through his America First campaign. Trump says the U.S. trying to solve climate issues stunts its economic growth.
And Trump's new security plan follows that logic and equates economic security with national security. Trump says because the U.S. is competing with other countries for economic security, it might need to break off climate agreements with allies, which he says hurt the economy at home but support theirs.
To ensure that economic security, Trump's team is weighing a range of changes, like restricting some foreign science, technology, engineering and math students from transferring their work to other countries, as well as using U.S. "coal, natural gas, petroleum, renewables and nuclear" to become an "energy-dominated nation."
