President Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders in his first hours back in the Oval Office aimed at undoing U.S. climate policies and boosting the fossil fuel industry.

After four years of Biden administration policies that sought to slow the pace of climate change, Trump’s actions sent the pendulum of U.S. climate actions swinging sharply back in the opposite direction once again, writes Joe Árvai, director of the Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Southern California.

It wasn’t always like this. Árvai explains how America got to this point, and how money, lies and even the creation of red vs. blue states have influenced politics and played on human psychology to make climate change a partisan issue.

• Trump executive order attacks long-standing American principle of birthright citizenship

  Carol Nackenoff, Swarthmore College; Julie Novkov, University at Albany, State University of New York

  Since the earliest days of the nation, any person born on US soil is a US citizen.

• ‘The geezer game’ – a nearly 50-year-old pickup basketball game – reveals its secrets to longevity

  Richie Zweigenhaft, Guilford College

  A long-running pickup game in North Carolina – made up of ‘geezers’ with various political leanings – thrives by reducing conflict.

• Extreme heat, flooding, wildfires – Colorado’s formerly incarcerated people on the hazards they faced behind bars

  Shawhin Roudbari, University of Colorado Boulder; Shideh Dashti, University of Colorado Boulder

  More than 65% of formerly incarcerated people reported experiencing climate-related hazards, according to survey results.

• What is a migrant? What is ICE? 10 terms to help you understand the debate over immigration

  Ernesto Castañeda, American University; Daniel Jenks, University of Pennsylvania

  Immigration scholars break down some of the immigration terms that are likely to become common during the Trump administration’s first months.

• Feeling political distress? Here are coping strategies a psychologist shares with his clients

  Jeremy P. Shapiro, Case Western Reserve University

  Politics in America have become more upsetting than ever for big chunks of the population, but there are ways to cope.

• Philanthropy provides $30B annually for science and health research − funding that tends to stay local

  Louis Shekhtman, Bar-Ilan University

  Nearly 40% of all gifts and grants and 60% of the total number of dollars given backed initiatives based in the foundation’s own state.

• Knowing less about AI makes people more open to having it in their lives – new research

  Chiara Longoni, Bocconi University; Gil Appel, George Washington University; Stephanie Tully, University of Southern California

  People with less AI literacy often see the technology as ‘magical’ and awe-inspiring

How the oil industry and growing political divides turned climate change into a partisan issue

Joe Árvai, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

The climate policy pendulum is swinging back again with Trump in office. Money, lobbying and talking about red vs. blue states all play a role in the political and public divide.

• Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the Pyrocene

  Stephen Pyne, Arizona State University

  Humans have become a geologic force by cooking the planet – using fire on a scale that is altering land, water, air and ecosystems.

• Warning of ‘oligarchy,’ Biden channels Andrew Jackson

  Daniel Feller, University of Tennessee

  By warning of the threat oligarchy poses to the country, President Joe Biden tapped into a Democratic Party tradition begun in the mid-19th century.

• Trump’s executive orders can make change – but are limited and can be undone by the courts

• How Trump could try to stay in power after his second term ends

• Trump’s Jan. 6 pardon order ‘flies in the face of the facts’ of violent insurrection, retired federal judge explains