Even if many businesses and universities are rushing to abandon their climate goals, diversity commitments and small democratic values, fearing retaliation from the increasingly authoritarian Trump administration, you might think that at least the West Los Angeles-based environmental group will at least secure that principle.
Alas, you’re probably wrong.
The Bay Foundation, a well-known nonprofit that works with government officials to protect and restore Santa Monica Bay, one of Southern California’s most beloved natural resources, has quietly managed references to climate change, environmental justice and diversity initiatives from its working documents and its website.
The Bay Foundation website page explained how climate change is affecting the basin – to remove all references to the climate, for use in the Internet Archive. The group was also its justice, equity, diversity and inclusion page, which previously could be “fair and inclusion beyond race, gender, age, religion, identity and experience.”
Also worry: presented to the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Committee last month.
Before the Environmental Protection Agency fires federal funds for the restoration of Santa Monica Bay, it must approve a work plan written annually by the Commission and the Bay Foundation, and then submit it to the EPA.
Usually it’s a simple process. But President Trump and his efforts to keep money down for things related to climate and environmental injustice — despite clear evidence that the planet is warm and low-income families and people of color are particularly at risk — changes to the draft plan this year suggest that parents in Santa Monica Bay decided there was no risk of causing Trump’s Las.
Apart from the list of acronyms, every use of the term “climate change” this year has been hit by a single black line. The plan is to “support the efforts of underprivileged communities to achieve healthy habitats, implement green infrastructure and reduce pollution.”
Meanwhile, it featured a section on equity in underserved communities.
With this year’s plans, we can’t find them anywhere.
“This is probably just the beginning. Local environmental activist Walter Lamb, who caught my attention, said: “We’re not going to have a chance to see the world of people living in the world.
“This sends an incredible message that the local restoration committee, where climate change is written on its mission, will scrub it right away from its work plan,” he added.
We asked Tom Ford, the Bay Foundation’s CEO, to explain it. He gave me a simple answer. Under Trump, there are “new rules that will allow federal funds to be available,” and it is not permitted to spend money on climate initiatives or programs that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
“We’re lined up,” Ford said.
Where should I start with such a horrifying confession?
To get started: Under the US Constitution, the administrative department is enforcing the law. But Congress writes the law. The judicial department interprets the law and resolves disputes between Congress and the President.
When he asked Ford to back up his claim that Trump had forced the group’s hands, he sent me from the White House budget chief. The memo ordered a freezing of widespread spending, in particular calling for “the use of federal resources to promote Marxist equity, transgenderism and the Green New Deal social engineering.”
The problem is that two federal judges have issued a preliminary injunction blocking freezes in response to a lawsuit that claims the president has no authority to block funds approved by Congress. Last week, the judge “fundamentally undermines the clear constitutional role of each branch of the government.”
Ford also sent me from the U.S. Personnel Management Office, which was attributed to Trump’s order to terminate the DEI program at federal agencies. That order was also from a federal judge.
Ford addressed criticism of the Bay Foundation’s decision at a public workshop last month. He said he and the nonprofit “we feel the weight of these challenges that are placed before us.”
“None of this was easy for us, and I certainly don’t think it would be easy for anyone else,” he said.
To some extent, I am sympathetic. The Bay Foundation relies on federal grants for most of its funds.
But this is the way democracy withered and dies. Academic experts say when critics defeat themselves, it’s just as diverse as billionaire media executives and environmental nonprofits, as Trump must be, and it’s happening in the US now.
Yale University historian Timothy Snyder, author of The The, has derived important lessons from extensive research into Nazi Germany and other authoritarian regimes. “Please don’t follow in advance.”
“Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given,” he writes. “In these times, individuals are pre-prepared for what a more oppressive government wants and pre-pre-pre-pre-emptively to offering themselves without being asked. Citizens who adapt in this way are to teach their power that they can do that.”
That’s exactly what the Bay Foundation is doing. Like all other businesses and institutions that are supposed to stand up for climate progress, democracy and the oppressed, they choose to avoid risk and invite Trump and Elon Musk to escalate an attack on science and fundamental human decency.
UCLA environmental historian John Christensen said it is particularly important for California to stand strong.
“We spent billions of dollars if we couldn’t support our decades of commitment to dealing with climate change,” he asked.
But even here, some officials are hunched into Trump.
Gov. Gavin Newsom began with his new podcast a few months later in hopes of securing federal relief for wildfire-damaged Los Angeles County. In the first episode, he recites past support for the LGBTQ community and reflects key topics from Trump’s presidential election, saying it was when trans women took part in women’s sports.
Several democratic politicians have, for their credibility, Newsom’s harmful statement.
But when he spoke at a restoration committee meeting last month about exclusion from the public and removing climate commitments, he said he would not respond to them.
However, when I reached out to Bruce Reznik, a member of the board, he had sympathy for both sides. Reznik, executive director of Advocacy Group La Waterkeeper, said he understands why the Bay Foundation “feels that there is no choice but to appease this administration. He also hopes that more nonprofits, businesses and community leaders will “straddle these absurd and harsh instructions.”
“It’s infuriating that we have a federal government where nonprofits working towards a more just and resilient society have to fear retaliation just to do our job,” Reznik said in an email.
Hopefully, Reznik and other board members will insist that staff will restore climate change and environmental justice initiatives to their work plan. If Trump’s EPA advocates a test of constitutional boundaries and tries to withhold federal funds, the committee should take it to court.
Whatever happens next, Ford said the Gulf Foundation is still committed to “diversity, equal opportunity, and a culture of belonging.” These values are important to map the future of Santa Monica Bay due to its long history of race and class-driven history and its California coastline.
And while Ford doesn’t assure me that the group is still expressly thinking about climate change, he said that some of the major climate change impacts in Santa Monica Bay are at the heart and center of its programme, rising climate and temperatures.
I hope that’s true. However, there are doubts about Christensen from UCLA.
“Without a written commitment, we have informal promises and often we are not accountable,” he said.
A single nonprofit organization cannot change the course of authoritarianism on its own. Historically, self-censorship and science denials have not led to a good place. Instead of following in advance, the Bay Foundation should set an example.
One more
When I called on Dodgers owner Mark Walter to drop Philips 66, owner of 76 petrol, as Dodger Stadium advertiser, I wasn’t sure if my idea would gain any traction.
The Dodgers have not yet acted on my suggestions. But this week, one of California’s top politicians, state senator majority leader Lena Gonzalez (D. Long Beach), accepted my pitch. In A, she urged him to close all sponsorship deals with oil and gas companies, writing, “It is not the greatest interest of our community or planet to continue to associate these companies with our beloved boys and the young boys.”
It’s about my time. The Dodgers did not respond to my request for comment.
This is the latest in Boiling Point, a newsletter on climate change and the environment of the US West. . Listen to the boiling point podcast .
Follow us for more climate and environmental news x and On blue skis.
