It depends on how you define "environmental protections". If you're talking about actual laws (in the US, because that's what I have real world experience with) that establish management of hazardous waste (RCRA); force polluters to either remediate or pay to have their own pollution remediated (CERCLA); mandate clean air (CAA) and clean water (CWA); and ban manufacture, import, and production of toxic substances (TSCA), then those protections going away would be devastating. People as a whole forget how awful environmental conditions were 50 years ago before agencies were established and laws enacted. Obviously, these things are not universal, but the laws are sound and effective. The recent gutting of enforcement of those laws and prevention of implementing new protections will have lasting effects for generations.