Overview:

-"People can’t deny what they are choking on, bailing out, or sweating through," Voices columnists say after EPA rollback announcement.
-EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made the announcement on a sweltering July day in Indianapolis.
-THE EPA is accepting written comments on the repeal of the endangerment finding through Sept. 22.

When EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the rollback of the endangerment finding July 29 at a truck plant in Indianapolis, the heat index hit 105 degrees.

The endangerment finding is a foundational ruling established in 2009 that recognizes greenhouse gases as a threat to public health.

Zeldin claimed it’s not carbon dioxide that threatens Americans’ health, but “emissions standards themselves,” a position that ignores both science and reality.

The day before, in neighboring Michigan, a storm dumped nearly 3 inches of rain on Detroit, flooding roads and knocking out power to thousands of homes. Days later, dense plumes of Canadian wildfire smoke rolled across the upper and lower peninsulas, canceling outdoor activities and sending kids indoors.

Two-thirds of Americans report climate change impact

For decades, scientists, physicians, and activists have warned that fossil fuel pollution would drive extreme weather, worsen air quality, and make people sick. They have given speeches, written essays, organized die-ins, chained themselves together outside banks —even tossed tomato soup at a Van Gogh — all to shake the public awake.

But the response from the oil and gas industry, and many political leaders, has been the same: denial, distraction, and delay.

That strategy is now faltering. In courts, and in the court of public opinion, climate denial is losing ground. Roughly two-thirds of Americans, including four in 10 Republicans, report that climate change is already impacting their community. People can’t deny what they are choking on, bailing out, or sweating through. Spinning the data, firing scientists, or blaming Canada won’t clear the air.

Claiming climate change doesn’t endanger health is like denying gravity while falling off a roof.

And yet, that’s what this rollback aims to do. If finalized, it would erase all federal greenhouse gas limits on cars and trucks, dismantle the legal basis for cleaner vehicle standards, and reverse a decade of climate policy. The administration says it’s about “consumer choice” and cost savings. But what it really restores is regulatory impunity for polluters, and rising health burdens for the communities already breathing the consequences.

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We see those consequences daily. A patient with emphysema in his seventies recently told one of us he can barely walk to the mailbox on a good day. When it’s hot, humid, and smoky (conditions increasingly common in the Midwest), breathing outside is near impossible.

In a recent listening tour across Michigan, Dr. Del Buono heard from dozens of frontline clinicians. They told her about ERs filling up after storms knock out power to patients who rely on electricity for breathing, cooling, or mobility. Others described heart attacks and respiratory distress among older patients trying to clear flood-damaged homes. In Dr. Rabin’s own clinic, wildfire smoke has become so common that it’s now a part of the clinical note template.

Many patients don’t directly link their symptoms to climate change. But they know something is wrong in the environment — they feel it.

Endangerment finding rollback denies climate reality

Gaslighting has become the signature tactic of the Trump era: deny what’s happening, discredit the experts and challenge people to distrust their own experiences. “America is returning to free and open dialogue around climate and energy policy — driving the focus back to following the data,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright at the same Indianapolis event.

But rescinding the endangerment finding isn’t following the data. It’s deleting it. It’s an effort to dismantle the very scientific consensus that underpins our clean air laws, just as Americans are finally starting to see — and suffer — the consequences of ignoring it.

Climate denial is no match for climate reality. You can’t spin away wildfire smoke, flooded roads, or emergency rooms full of people struggling to breathe.

This moment calls for clarity and pressure. We must hold our leaders accountable to the truth: fossil fuels are endangering public health. To deny it is not just dishonest. It’s a dead end.

The EPA is accepting written comments regarding the repeal of the endangerment finding at this link through Sept. 22.

Alexander Rabin is a clinical associate professor of pulmonary and critical-care medicine at the University of Michigan. Lisa Del Buono is a retired diagnostic pathologist and a founder of Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action.

Planet Detroit’s Voices column includes opinion pieces from our community of partners and readers. These pieces express the voices of the authors and not necessarily those of the publication.

Alexander Rabin is a clinical associate professor of pulmonary and critical-care medicine at the University of Michigan.

Lisa Del Buono is a retired diagnostic pathologist and a founder of Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action.