Interview With Hali Rederer, Climate and Environmental Activist

1. As someone with an ecological perspective, how do you assess the “No Kings” protests in the United States, and do you see them as connected to issues of social and environmental justice?

As an ecologist the  “No Kings” protests are important for their scale, visibility, and comprehensive dissent against  Donald Trump’s administrations abuse of power, corruption, racism, xenophobia, and attempts to dismantle progress on human rights including environmental justice. 

Solving Environmental Justice problems is widely acknowledged as key and intersectional with progress grappling with our climate change emergency and biodiversity extinction crisis.   
Personally, I know my scientist colleagues and myself feel the fellowship or camaraderie experienced is a much needed energy boost when participating in “No Kings” and  “March for Science” protests. These events leads to opportunities for further  involvement in effectively resisting the Trump administration and those enabling Trump. 

I highly recommend checking out "All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis," edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson.

2. In your view, what role have short-term policies during the presidency of Donald Trump played in shaping public awareness and policy on important issues, including popular protests such as “No Kings”?

By way of background, Trump aggressively attempts to disrupt  opposition and oversight to his administrations hideous proposals, executive orders, nominees, and lawless actions ( eg, illegally deploying our military to attack countries unilaterally). Since Trump took office in 2025 Congress has rarely gotten ahead of Trumps avalanche of illegal executive orders and his illegal appropriation of federal taxpayer money. Per the US Constitution, only Congress has the power of the purse, only Congress legislates and enacts laws, and only Congress can declare war. 

Unfortunately, this cowardly bribable  Republican Congress so far is happy to cede its Constitutional authority and grovel embarrassingly to fascistic Trump.  Trump is only too happy to usurp the power of the US Congress. Trumps advisors and cabinet are pathetically  unqualified, ill prepared, and corrupt themselves. Trump surrounds himself with loyalist,   “yes” people who do not stand up to him such as Pam Bondi and whack job RFK jr. 

Right now the  Democratic opposition in Congress can slow down Trumps actions but in most cases do not have the votes or control to shut Trump down through checks and balances. Trumps is habitually trampling institutional norms and his law breaking with little push back or guardrails from Congress amounts to the  US  being in a vicarious Constitutional crisis. This is a dangerous situation both domestically and internationally.  

So, Trump’s short term policies and actions that stand out to me for  a. bringing Americans out into the streets in protest and b. drive people to the ballot box to vote and elect Trump’s Democratic  opposition candidates into office: 
A. Trumps brutal Immigration policies. Trumps DHS is enacting Trumps racist agenda, hurting our economy with a violent lawless paramilitary force ICE. Trump simply wants a paramilitary police force that he can control and deploy to do anything he wants. 
So Trumps control of ICE/CBP  is not about illegal immigrations enforcement. Citizens have also been killed and detained by ICE. Democrats in Congress are attempting to reign in ICE and CBP. No Kings is about No ICE, Immigrant rights, and Constitutional rights violated casually by Trumps orders, actions, and DHS  ICE/CBP. 

B. Trumps illegal use of our military and his war of choice with Iran, threatening Greenland (NATO), attacking civilian boats in the Caribbean, attacking Venezuela, kidnapping its leaders and stealing their oil, threatening Canada and Mexico, Trumps illegal imposition of tariffs, abandoning the Paris Agreement, abandoning important diplomatic humanitarian involvements at the UN, illegally defunding USAID, and on.  

C. Trumps obsession with Fossil Fuels and expanding extraction of oil and minerals even in highly vulnerable ecosystems. Trumps corruption and illegally attempting to turn over public lands and protected ocean to industry. This goes hand in hand with Trumps distain for science, especially attacking Climate Change.

3. From an environmental perspective, what impacts can military conflicts and tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran have on the environment?

Ecological perspectives on war has a growing literature that often states the obvious: War in all of its forms lets loose devastatingly grotesque, nihilistic, and deadly environmental impacts. War is a savage breech of our ecosystems treating both life (people, animals, plants) and resources (air, water, land) required by life as brutally disposable. 

The Middle East and the current illegal US attacks on Iran is viewed by some social or human ecologist as a conflict and war baiting based in resource conflicts.  Specifically, this situation could be seen as competition over resources (access to oil) and territory (Israel vs Palestine) as primary drivers of this now spreading conflict and growing tensions. 

Further complication of this situation is the self- dealing loose cannon Trump with oligarchs and his crazed ambitions of exploiting the oil wealth of Iran. Trump’s genocidal notions of wiping out and removing the Palestinian people and building resorts on their land is another aspect of this Middle East geopolitical ecological resource conflict. 

This is making the Middle East landscapes and its natural resources into sacrifice zones or combatants themselves. Trump sees Tehran and perhaps the Iranian people as disposable. This week a UN Diplomat resigned and warned about Nuclear attack (s) being considered and prepared for by the UN (by Trump I’m assuming).  I am certainly worried that Trump is insane enough to trigger a nuclear winter. Again, relying on an impotent cowardly Republican Congress to remove Trump is a significant barrier to world peace right now. 

In this geological era, the Anthropocene, natural ecology and life itself is perhaps viewed as an “inconvenience” to a small powerful group of the wealthy whose desire to control earths resources is seemingly insatiable. Though clearly wealth is meaningless on a dead toxic planet void of living plants and animals with massacred peoples destroyed by war.

 

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Interesting Article:
https://geopolitique.eu/en/articles/peace-building-in-the-age-of-wartime-ecology/
Nuclear Threat - UN Diplomat resignation: 
https://madhyamamonline.com/middle-east/un-diplomat-resigns-claims-un-preparing-for-possible-nuclear-use-in-iran-1507296

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4. How do wars and military operations affect natural resources, pollution levels, and climate-related challenges both regionally and globally?

Globally, nationally, states, cities, and communities have no time to waste addressing our climate emergency. Clearly, our health is directly intertwined with the health of every aspect of our environment. Violent conflict with bombs, toxic chemicals among other modern weapons not only destroys people in the “war theater” its local natural environments and resources, it deeply wounds our collective human consciousness. 

In other words, especially now because we are approaching and threaten to surpass climate warming tipping points, war anywhere harms all of us and detracts all of us from focusing on implementing solutions to the existential threat of human driven climate change, dangerous to all life on earth. 

We have a responsibility to stay focused and not become subverted into the war vortex. War really has no environmental winners.

5. As an ecologist, what solutions would you suggest to reduce the environmental impacts of international tensions and conflicts?

As an ecologist I am optimistic and inspired by the abundance of restoration and conservation solutions to environmental degradation. Of course, conservation is much less costly compared to restoration. No question about it, sane peaceful engagement (versus violent conflict) is the best for our natural ecology.  Ecologist write about “Environmental Peacemaking.”  

International tensions and conflicts impact people’s ability to cultivate food. Conflict’s disrupts food and water distribution and safety. This is an important factor in pushing people into migration and into stateless refugee status. Refugees are vulnerable to international political and social whims, violence and abuse. 

Loss and damages from human caused climate change resulting in,as examples: extreme heat waves, wildfire storms and flooding also drives migration, increasing tensions internationally. Decarbonization as an international strategy (the Paris Agreement among others) could go a long way to mitigate climate change impacts and reduce tension and war conflicts over energy resources.   

Aid to victims of conflict, food and water security, and the environmental conditions necessary to secure food and water must be the highest priority of diplomatic engagement in conflict regions. As ordinary citizens, we must compel our leaders to share knowledge, support humanitarian foreign aid ( like USAID defunded by Trump),  and encourage the transfer of agricultural and environmental restoration technology. We have many solutions. Though implementing solutions largely requires the political will to implement them.  
 

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https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aed5212
https://www.sir.advancedleadership.harvard.edu/articles/political-ecology-environmental-conflicts-struggle-over-natural-resources#:~:text=Managing%20natural%20resources%20sustainably%20and,natural%20resources%20and%20the%20environment
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/statements/preventing-exploitation-environment-war-and-armed-conflict#:~:text=We%20must%20place%20transparency%20and,during%20and%20after%20armed%20conflict

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6. In your opinion, what impact has the two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran had on the situation of both parties?
 

Important to keep in mind as to where the U.S. stands: this Iran war is viewed by the public ( voters) and largely Democrats members of Congress as  illegal to begin with. Trump and his administration did make the decision to attack Iran without Congress and without our international allies. The two parties remain at a standoff as to the role of Congress. 

Democrats want a war powers resolution to take control over this Iran situation. Republican don’t want it nor any accountability at all for Trump’s illegal aggressive attacks on Iran and other nations including Venezuela and threatening Greenland. 

Trump is presenting as deranged prosecuting his war of choice with Iran with no justification and, in part, through social media posts threatening to end Iranian civilization. 

Republicans are largely silent on Trumps nuclear and genocidal threats. Even though, historians repeatedly point out, silence is complicity and not neutral.   

At this point, Democrats and a majority of Americans see Trump as a dangerous madman. Trump lies all the time. So it’s not clear if Trump will even follow through on his cease fire agreement. Therefore, Trump’s unhinged nuclear threat remains.  

Some members of Congress are crediting the American public to Trump’s not following through on his annihilation threats. These last few days Americans relentlessly exerted pressure on members of Congress and Trump. 

I think it is important Americans and the international community continue to keep pressure on members of Congress to remove Secretary Hegseth and Trump.

because we have a useless spineless Congress and the cabinet are Trump’s sycophants , our best bet to ending this madness of Trumps is the midterms electing Democrats to Congress - flipping the House and the Senate. Realistically, a Democratic Congress could cut off money to the White House at minimum and carry out an impeachment.
Congress passing a war powers resolution comes up for a vote - this could help. We will see if Republicans in Congress will join Democrats to pass it.

 

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Hali Rederer, climate change activist. She introduces herself as a citizen, climate and environmental activist hiking the Appalachian Trail. Ecologist in coastal marine fishes, rocky intertidal, and tide pool ecosystems. Interest include climate change mitigation in cities, and the influence of the natural environment on the built environment. Served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in East Africa. Served as a California Climate Corps Fellow Team Leader. Education: M.S. in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation (Marine Ecology), M.A. Urban Planning ( Natural Environment). Hali lives with her wife and their adopted shelter dog Boujee-LIL-Boy in Northern California.