Mark Morford of Rapture Machine, Inc. refers to the multiple Executive Orders (EO) adopted by the Trump administration since Inauguration Day as:
Insane cruelty, flagrantly stupid lengths to which Trump will now go in his second term – by way of brutal executive orders, Nazi-adjacent announcements and legislative acts – to control, harm, and openly destroy as many humans and institutions as possible – including, very likely, and unless you are an ass-killing billionaire tech bro and even the – you.[1]
In the case of Alaska, these “brutal executive orders” include “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” that directs the Dept. of Interior to retract course from the Biden administration related to oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and National Petroleum Reserve and roads in the Tongass National Forest and the Ambler mining district.
Trump is also attempting to reinstate five Public Land Orders he adopted during his last term, which would remove 50-year-old protections for almost 30 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Alaska. While the Biden administration created a strong record to support its decision for keeping these withdrawals in place, creating a hurdle for the new administration, given the specific mention in the January 20 EO, this appears to be high on the administration’s priority list and will likely move forward quickly.
Other EOs adopted by Trump would halt, indefinitely, all offshore wind energy permitting, leasing, and approvals, investigate the possibility of terminating existing offshore wind leases, and reopen protected offshore waters to and expedite permits for oil and gas drilling, including declaring an “energy emergency” that would allow oil and gas corporations to avoid environmental laws.
According to Dermot Cole, who writes for Reporting from Alaska, Trump:
A major Trump supporter, Governor Dunleavy’s transition priorities, which seek to reverse protections for critical habitat, weaken state-federal conservation agreements, and reopen Alaska’s lands and waters to the extraction industry, are consistent with the Eos.
Because Trump directs federal agencies to “rescind, revoke, revise, amend, defer, or grant exemptions from any and all regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions that are inconsistent with maximizing the development of Alaska resources’ environmentalists and tribes are already gearing up for extended litigation to stop this particular form of federal overreach - always a very unpopular tactic with Alaskans.
The fact that these rollbacks go too far is illustrated by the shock in response to EOs voiced even by conservative Alaskans. According to Sen. Cathy Giessel R-Anchorage, who has been a past advocate for mining and oil and gas development, Alaska is “not a colony to be pillaged, [and] by throwing open all of the regulations related to resource development, we could be jeopardizing our lands and waters.”
While many of us are not surprised by Trump and Dunleavy’s efforts to turn Alaska into a corpocracy, as Medford states, this doesn’t “mean you shouldn’t be outraged at all that is right now unfolding in this, America’s first, openly violent era of authoritarian oligarchy.” However, he says we “cannot get stuck there. Being endlessly appalled is a waste of time, a deep hole offering no light. It’s also completely paralyzing.”
What I like best about what Medford says, however, in a world that has gone crazy is the advice to keep “yourself strong, grounded, healthy. Surround yourself with like-minded humans” and choose “your battles. Pick the area, the issue, the cause where you feel you can be most effective, and go straight at it. Even if it’s just trying to save the last decent school district or local library from being gutted by MAGA morons who don’t read, all the way up to running for public office yourself. Do whatever you can, wherever you can.”
Last week, I gave an Author Talk for a book I recently published that attempts to be a similar warning about a Trump second term in which there were many questions about what we as ordinary citizens can do to resist Trump and Dunleavy’s assault on Alaska. Here are some ideas:
According to Loren Barrett of Cook Inlet Keeper:
…your voice will be more important than ever. Public opposition has always been a powerful force in protecting Alaska’s lands, waters, and wildlife. Together, we must ensure that short-term profit does not come at the expense of long-term sustainability.[2]
Another response is for everyday citizens to join the Native American campaign of applying “Indigenuity” into the fight against extraction interests and the politics of greed by boosting the role of traditional knowledge, rights of the river, and tribal self-determination movements.
Join or partner with conservation groups like the Kachemak Bay Watershed Council – a scientific and policy data and information-sharing entity informing agencies and policymakers who make decisions affecting the Bay. The Council created the Kachemak Bay Fox River Watershed Climate Risk Assessment, which evaluated primarily pelagic, rocky intertidal, and estuary/wetlands habitats’ vulnerability to climate change.
If you don’t have the time to act on your own, give to your local environmental organization now working overtime to stop or mitigate the attempts by Trump and Dunleavy to turn Alaska into a corpocracy. As Dermot Cole puts it, “There will be a boom in fundraising by environmental groups who will find all the ammunition they need in Trump’s executive order, which aims to unleash oil and gas drilling, mining, and the cutting of timber.”
Most importantly, as Medford says, “You are hereby requested to not wallow in being endlessly appalled. That ship has sunk. You are hereby requested to meditate, or practice whatever spiritual work keeps you kind and generous and grounded and strong.”[3]
The Resistance has begun!
[1] Don’t You Dare Be at All Surprised (January 23, 2025).
[2] Alaska is not a resource colony for the corporate elite, CIK Newsletter (1/24/2025).
[3] Don’t You Dare Be at All Surprised.