Marc Shaffer, Rachel M. Shaffer: Science saves lives
Credit: New York National Guard

Marc Shaffer, Rachel M. Shaffer: Science saves lives

Whether tackling viruses or air pollution, we need to end the attack on science and truth.

"Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door... The audience holds its breath along with the protagonist as she/he (more often she) approaches that door.


"The protagonist throws it open, and there is a ten-foot-tall bug. The audience screams, but this particular scream has an oddly relieved sound to it. 'A bug ten feet tall is pretty horrible', the audience thinks, 'but I can deal with a ten-foot-tall bug. I was afraid it might be a hundred feet tall'."

—Stephen King, Danse Macabre

Right now, we are in the COVID-19 corridor, holding our breath as we approach Stephen King's closed door. Every day brings news of more cases, more deaths, more restrictions, and more fear.

Coronavirus is terrifying – and more so because we, as a nation, seem woefully unprepared. In 2018, the White House National Security Council removed the official in charge of responding to global pandemics and dissolved the global health security team he oversaw.

This is just one example of President Trump's contempt for science.

His dangerous disregard for the truth — not just with regard to this virus, but also for air pollution, pesticides, and other environmental public health hazards — is placing all of us at risk.

Lives saved 

Consider a different airborne killer—air pollution. According to new research released in early March, human-generated air pollution kills more than 5 million people around the world—each year.

But it used to be worse.

There was a time not so long ago when Los Angeles was shrouded in thick, sickening clouds of smog. In some cities in the eastern U.S., pollution reached levels double that of the worst days in modern Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world. Among the primary causes were emissions from industrial facilities, coal power plants, and vehicle tail pipes.

Using science as their guide, legislators from both parties came together to improve air quality around the country. A major breakthrough came with the Clean Air Act, signed into law by President Nixon in 1970 and strengthened under President Bush in 1990.

Since 1990, as the U.S. population has grown by 30 million, the numbers of registered vehicles by 80 million, and the size of the nation's economy has quadrupled, air pollution emissions have dropped by more than 70 percent, preventing more than 4.2 million deaths.

Science saves lives.

Yet, President Trump is undoing it all.

Ignoring science

Los Angeles smog in 2006. (Credit: Ben Amstutuz/flickr)

In February, just as coronavirus fears were escalating, the Trump Administration released its 2021 budget. It calls for cutting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funding by 26 percent, a reduction that will severely hamper the agency's ability to conduct cutting-edge research and implement programs that will save lives and improve the health of millions of Americans.

The administration has repealed President Obama's Clean Power Plan, a move that is expected to cause 5,200 premature deaths per year by 2030 by increasing the amount of carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants we will breathe. The administration has also opened the door to greater mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, eliminating protections that the Obama Administration had estimated would prevent 11,000 premature deaths.

As for those tailpipes that contributed to L.A.'s old toxic haze, Trump is preparing to roll back standards for vehicle emissions and has already revoked California's ability to set more stringent vehicle emission rules and allowed unrestricted use of a gasoline blend that will increase levels of smog. EPA's programs to control smog and other vehicle-related emissions save 40,000 lives each year.

Eerily echoing the dismantling of the pandemic response team, the Trump EPA has disbanded the longstanding expert panel that provides guidance for national standards under the Clean Air Act.

Without its input, the EPA has ignored the newest science, sticking with an outdated standard for particulate matter that will cause thousands of additional premature deaths per year.

When the coronavirus threat is defused—as it surely will be—we will still face airborne killers. Our only effective protection against the familiar foe of air pollution, the monster we've seen, is prevention, reducing harmful emissions from sources like power plants and vehicles.

Just as with our rush to contain the coronavirus, our lives depend on it.

Marc Shafferis a documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Oakland, California. Rachel M. Shaffer, MPH, is a PhD candidate studying air pollution in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington Seattle School of Public Health.

climate change health care
Talking to residents about “retreating” from sea level rise is “a tough conversation… They want to stay put,” says Christopher Krahforst, climate adaptation director for Hull, Mass. (Credit: Doug Struck)

Severe flooding increasingly cutting people off from health care

Many more Americans will find themselves regularly cut off from essential services, rescue workers and health care long before water actually reaches their homes, a recent study predicts.

HULL, Ma.—Whenever a storm is coming, the fire company in this town of 10,500 jutting into the Atlantic Ocean sends a truck and personnel to wait in an old fire station on the northern tip of the peninsula.

Keep reading...Show less
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
secret life of plastic
BigStock Photo ID: 459640975
Copyright: New Africa
Available for extended license use

The secret life of plastic

What happens to our trash once we’ve done our duty and tossed it into the right bin?

Lego is a company haunted by its own plastic

While the toy brand kills its plans for an oil-free plastic alternative, it’s still pumping out billions of non-biodegradable bricks a year. Can Lego ever be sustainable?
Kitchen faucet
Image by Ron Porter from Pixabay

Salt continues slow contamination of Baton Rouge fresh water

The saltwater wedge moving up the Mississippi River has cities downriver of Baton Rouge on high alert to keep supplied with fresh drinking water.

Supreme Court flooding case could ripple across the energy sector

Texas property owners flooded by Hurricane Harvey and Tropical Storm Imelda are headed to the Supreme Court to make their pitch for why they should be allowed to sue for compensation from the state. Court watchers are closely following the case for how it could also affect the energy sector.

NPR homepage
Big Stock Photo

Climate solutions are necessary. So we're dedicating a week to highlight them

Climate change is here. And this week, NPR is doing something new. We're dedicating an entire week to focus on the search for climate solutions, with stories across our network.

Great lakes ship
Photo by Chris Pagan on Unsplash

Inside the battle to preserve the underwater ghosts of Ontario's Great Lakes

Ontario's Great Lakes region is hailed by many as the greatest shipwreck diving area in the world, but due to invasive species and climate change, the province's rich underwater history might only have a decade or two before it crumbles to dust.
From our Newsroom
Heat, air pollution and climate change … oh my! Was summer 2023 the new normal?

Heat, air pollution and climate change … oh my! Was summer 2023 the new normal?

Intense heat waves induced by climate change create favorable conditions for air pollution to worsen. Scientists say this isn’t likely to change unless action is taken.

environmental justice

LISTEN: Robbie Parks on why hurricanes are getting deadlier

"In places where there are high minority populations they bear, by far, the most burden of deaths from tropical cyclones."

children nature

Opinion: When kids feel the magic of nature, they will want to protect it

Improving our quality of life starts with the simple of act of getting kids outdoors.

birds climate change

In the Gulf of Maine, scientists race to save seabirds threatened by climate change

“I could see that, if successful, the methods developed could likely help these species."

fracking economics

Appalachia’s fracking counties are shedding jobs and residents: Study

The 22 counties that produce 90% of Appalachian natural gas lost a combined 10,339 jobs between 2008 and 2021.

Marathon Petroleum y una ciudad de Texas muestran una  potencial crisis de comunicaciones sobre sustancias químicas

Marathon Petroleum y una ciudad de Texas muestran una potencial crisis de comunicaciones sobre sustancias químicas

En los últimos tres años, Marathon ha violado repetidamente la ley de Aire Limpio y tuvo tres emergencias en el semestre de febrero a julio de 2023.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.