What's the Sierra Club Been Up To Lately?

By the Numbers

1.6°C: The global average warming above preindustrial levels reached in 2024, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. That was the first year the number exceeded 1.5°C (2.7°F). 

 220: US solar capacity in gigawatts at the end of 2024. This was a 24 percent increase from the capacity in 2023 and enough to keep the lights on in over 35 million homes.  

 52: The percentage of Americans who oppose withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, according to an AP poll.  

 $2.915 trillion: The total tally from extreme weather events that each caused at least $1 billion in damages between 1980 and 2024. 

200,000: The number of probationary federal employees at risk of being unlawfully fired by Trump, says a lawsuit representing tens of thousands of workers who have already been axed.

Alerts

Mobilizing a Movement
The Sierra Club was instrumental in keeping Donald Trump’s first presidency in check, and our organizers, volunteers, and staffers are prepared to do it again. President Trump has vowed to open the Arctic to oil and gas drilling, and his Project 2025 allies are hoping he’ll go even further by delisting endangered species, selling off public lands to the highest bidder, and dismantling bedrock environmental protections. We need your help in rising to the challenge of safeguarding public lands, wildlife, and frontline communities in Trump’s second term.
» Take action: sc.org/block-trump

Fact-Check Club
National staff from the Sierra Club are looking for volunteers to join the organization’s first Climate Truth Tellers Team. Members will help elevate fact-based climate content on social media, reaching readers and viewers where they are while beating back the worst misinformation and disinformation online. The Sierra Club will provide training on how to promote facts on social media and will direct volunteers toward high-priority posts to engage with.
» Take action: sc.org/climate-truth

Victories

EXPLORE Bill Soars

With mere weeks left in its term, the 118th Congress passed the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act at the end of December. The huge legislative package—which helps kids and veterans get outdoors and streamlines the recreation permit system—was the largest outdoors package passed while President Joe Biden was in office.

Big Sky Beacon

Just before Christmas, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in a historic constitutional climate case. Republican leaders in the state had tried to pass two laws amending Montana’s Environmental Policy Act to let energy and mining projects off the hook for their greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts. Sixteen young plaintiffs, ages two to 18, then sued the state, claiming these laws impinged on their right “to a clean and healthful environment” according to the state constitution. A lower court judge ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor. The state then appealed to its supreme court, which upheld the lower ruling. It’s now clear that in Montana, people’s health trumps big-pocketed polluters. 

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Check It Out

The Sierra Club is a democratic institution. Members like you help decide the direction of the organization by voting in our annual board of directors election. Eligible voters should receive a ballot by early March. Completed ballots must be returned by April 23. For more information, and to read candidate statements, visit sc.org/board-2025. 

Chapter Corner

LEAVING LEAD BEHIND 

Lead is an extremely toxic chemical that many federal and state regulators have deemed harmful to human health. Yet some of these same regulatory entities continue to allow for lead in outdoor recreation, endangering the health of wild birds, scavengers, and people who hunt. 

In 2022, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages wildlife refuges, decided to phase out tackle and lead ammunition at 10 federal wildlife refuges across the country. The following year, it canceled the withdrawal in West Virginia’s Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge. In December, the agency reached a settlement with conservation groups, including the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, to revisit its planned phaseout. 

“While we support hunting as an approved wildlife management tactic, it needs to be done in ways that minimize adverse impacts,” Jim Kotcon, the chapter chair, said in a statement. “This agreement means that the agency should rely on the scientific evidence to do what is best for all wildlife 
at the refuge.”

Campaign Updates

Driving Change
All those diesel semis that traverse the country’s highways carrying goods are a major contributor to the nation’s largest pollution source: transportation. The most effective solution to this problem? Developing cleaner-combustion and zero-emission trucks. California paved the way for that by enacting  the Advanced Clean Trucks Regulation in 2020 and the Heavy-Duty Omnibus Regulation in 2021. Many states followed suit, but truck makers and some policymakers have pushed to delay the rules from going into effect. In December, more than 40 nonprofits sent a letter to their state governors, urging them not to abandon vital clean air protections. “We urge governors to stay the course in the face of truck industry lobbying and begin timely implementation so that communities can begin experiencing the many benefits, including cleaner air and family-sustaining jobs,” Katherine García, the director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement.

Trump Watch

President Trump withdrew the US from the Paris climate accord, a global agreement to keep average temperatures below 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, repeating a move he made in 2019.

Major workforce cuts have hit environmental agencies, including the Department of the Interior and the EPA, which have been investigating violations by businesses connected to Elon Musk.

The Trump administration continued to withhold grant funding to federal programs, even after a judge ruled that the move was illegal. 

The president directed federal agencies to delete references to climate change and abandon climate research.

Trump’s efforts to boost oil drilling in the Arctic have been met with repeated reminders from the  prime ministers of Canada and Greenland that they’re not interested in relinquishing governance to the US. 

All new and pending offshore wind projects in federal waters have been halted.