Good morning and welcome to the tenth edition of The Leaflet.

This issue begins with the start of a three-part series covering NASA. The first part of this series covers current spending cuts to NASA, and follows up with NASA’s most important achievements, and concludes with a note as to why we should be concerned about these cuts—both from an environmental perspective and from a general perspective.

Next, we will discuss The Department of Government Efficiency, and their cuts to environmentally-related programs.

We will conclude with a resource for all you wildlife lovers out there.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

“Should these cuts come to pass, the result would be nothing short of an extinction event for space science and exploration in the United States” ~ The Planetary Society

72 Days. We are 72 days into a second Trump presidency. 

For many of us, this has been a living nightmare. For others, this has been an interesting test of our ability to fabricate reasons for faith in Trump. But nearly all of us, regardless of our level of faith in President Trump, have been impacted in some way by his spending cuts. We’ve had friends’ parents lose jobs, we know people whose entire careers have been ruined by these cuts, and have heard countless stories of how U.S.A.I.D. has helped millions of lives all over the world—and what may happen when this funding is cut. 

We, as human beings, do not operate on an island. We depend on others for practically everything we do. We need the aid that the government has provided for so long, and millions across the globe need it immediately. 

This aid is also needed for programs like National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA was established on October 1st, 1958, in response to the Soviet Union’s advances in space exploration (nasa.gov). Since 1958, NASA has been responsible for landing us on the moon, for allowing us to see 200 million years after the Big Bang with the James Webb Space Telescope, for mapping out the terrain of other celestial bodies, for unveiling to us what a black hole may look like, and so much more. (In the next issue, we will cover the most remarkable things NASA has done for our world.)

Yet, despite all of this remarkable progress, President Trump has sworn to cut its spending by 50%. Here are the facts:

1. President Trump has planned to cut 50% of NASA’s funding in the 2026 fiscal year budget proposal (The Planetary Society).

2. The Planetary Society has said that, “Should these cuts come to pass, the result would be nothing short of an extinction event for space science and exploration in the United States” (The Planetary Society).

3. The Department of Government Efficiency has terminated roughly $420 million in NASA contracts (Space News).

4. Dr. Katherine Calvin, NASA’s chief scientist (and climate researcher), along with “the entire staff of the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy, or OTPS, which included the agency’s chief economist and chief technologist” were fired in response to DOGE’S requests (CNN).

5. NASA has considered doing away with its Washington D.C. headquarters in response to federal spending cuts (Politico).

6. Greg Autry has been nominated by President Trump to be the CFO for NASA. He is expected to be in full compliance with DOGE’s cuts. NASAWatch has called him NASA’s DOGEFATHER (NASAWatch).

President Trump, in his first term, started up the Artemis Program, a program promising to send humans back to the moon. A moon rock from the last time the U.S. reached the moon (Apollo 17) was left on a shelf in the oval office for former President Joe Biden—symbolic of our commitment to return to the moon. Since 2017, NASA has invested about $40 billion into this program. Given that NASA’s annual budget has been about $25 billion since 2017, this has been a large portion of their spending. 

Now, the Artemis Program appears to be in the line of sight for Musk’s cuts. Todd Harrison, a space policy expert at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, writes, “The Artemis Program….is effectively dead.”

The rock has been removed from the shelf (NPR). It appears we will not be returning to the moon anytime soon.

~ Seamus Haney

The Department of Government Efficiency

A chainsaw is a fitting motif to describe the actions of the Trump administration regarding the environment. A sloppy, gas guzzling weapon that, rather than trimming unnecessary waste from government, hacks and mangles the very core of humanitarian and environmental institutions.  A recurring image that was popularized by Argentinian president and self described “anarcho-capitalist”, Javier Milei, the chainsaw has come to represent the most aggressive of neoliberal regulatory policy. Milei, like a Thatcherian ”Lady of the Lake”, even bequeathed Elon Musk a chainsaw on the CPAC stage this past February, an eerie allusion to the unholy union between billionaires and the removal of government regulation. This mismanaged attempt at government efficiency has culminated in the creation of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, an organization that has crippled USAID, destroyed the Education Department and has repeatedly made blatantly false statements regarding the true amount of taxpayer money allegedly saved.  DOGE, the Trump administration and the Republican party as a whole have launched a particularly brutal attack on environmental protection, an attack that will only benefit the ultra-wealthy at the expense of our planet. 

On March 12th, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin recorded a video in which he announced “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.” This involves the “reconsideration” (a thin euphemism for removal) of ”National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing,” the dissolution of multiple science advisory boards and committees regarding ensuring clean air standards, and the ending of any research into the especially devastating impact of global warming on minority groups. Furthermore, in the recent Supreme Court case San Francisco v. EPA, the Republican supermajority ruled in favor of limiting the EPA’s ability to enforce the Clean Water Act, essentially limiting any federal enforcement of environmental  standards surrounding the disposal of sewage. This comes after the EPA found that the city of San Francisco had violated the Clean Water Act by improperly and dangerously disposing of sewage. 

Not only are these policies environmentally devastating, they are being enacted to directly benefit fossil fuel organizations and investment firms that have poured billions into the creation of this new MAGA government. Jason Rylander, a legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, has stated that “Come hell or high water, raging fires and deadly heat waves, Trump and his cronies are bent on putting polluter profits ahead of people’s lives.” Much of the attacks on regulation are on laws that date back to the 1960s and 1970s like the ”Clean Water Act” and the “Clean Air Act”, both of which pulled America out of an era that was dominated by smoggy city skylines and leaded gas emissions. While the repeal of common sense legislation like this might seem odd at first, it makes more sense when you realize that Trump promised oil industry executives to limit EV manufacturing in exchange for $1 billion.  

These regressive policies combined with Trump’s invested interest in the success of the fossil fuel industry makes it abundantly clear that these regulator cuts are not to improve “government efficiency,” but to pad the wallets of billionaires and shareholders. 

~ Benjamin Whealy

The Mongabay Newsletter

One of the things people have told me that they want to see most from The Leaflet is coverage about wildlife and how animals are affected by human intervention. Admittedly, I have not done a fantastic job of covering this topic. This resource is an attempt to make up for this.

This is the Mongabay Newsletter. It’s a newsletter devoted entirely to covering “the latest conservation and environmental developments.” The newsletter covers practically everything you can think of—from twilight zone creatures to elephant seals to new documentaries capturing the beauty of our world. This newsletter is truly a gift to read every week. It’s a fantastic reminder of why many of us strive so hard to be the most “sustainable” person we can be. There is truly so much beauty in our world—and so much we have yet to discover.

I would highly recommend submitting your email to subscribe to this newsletter. It’s easy and you can always unsubscribe. I would like to credit Killian Quigley for introducing me to this newsletter.

~ Seamus Haney

The Leaflet’s Simple Steps to Sustainability

This week’s Simple Step to Sustainability is to reuse. Reusing anything is an extraordinary way to bring a second (or third or fourth, etc.) life to anything. It’s one of the core tenants of what sustainability means.

To be sustainable is to use the resources we have now in the most efficient and less taxing way possible so that we can preserve the wonderful gift that everything in our world is to us. Reusing these resources helps to prevent these increasingly valuable resources from being pulled from our planet.

This is an example of reusing (image above). On a trip to NYC over Christmas Break, we stumbled across a store called Metal Park in Bryant Park (link to their website). They take metal found in scrapyards and reuse them to create absolute fantastic models of practically everything with them. This is an item that I bought there. I wanted to share this as both an example of reusing and as a testament to human ingenuity.

This Week’s Waste Management Tip: Plastics (in General)

Recently I began reviewing previous content we’ve covered on The Leaflet, and I realized that we never directly addressed plastic recycling. I wanted to provide a short and simple guide to you so that you know which plastics to throw away and which to recycle.

Above is a guide, with a link here, of general recycling tips. As noted in the guide, only plastics 1,2,3 & 5 are able to be recycled. In general, if the plastic is “filmy” (plastic bag or wrap) it is not recyclable in Omaha’s recycling system. It can, however, be recycled through the Hefty ReNew Orange Bag Program. We've covered this program in a previous issue, linked here.

If you’d like a short video explanation on how to recycle in the City of Omaha, watch this video we put together (below).

As always, we are open to any questions about recycling or anything you may have about the environment. We are happy to go more in-depth about the recycling process with you if you wish.

The Leaflet’s 2025 Goal: Status

Helpful Links for Your Own Research

1. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

2. Omaha Recycling Guide

3. Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

4. Mongabay Newsletter

Thank you for reading this issue of The Leaflet.

The Leaflet is not affiliated with any organization or school.

Newsletter produced primarily by Seamus Haney

Cover image linked here.