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physicians for social responsibility
Medical Groups Tell EPA: Don't Kill 'Main Tool' to Combat Climate Crisis
"It is unconscionable that the agency charged with protecting Americans from environmental threats would consider rescinding policies based on years of evidence-based practice," said the head of one nursing group.
Sep 22, 2025
Over 120 top health and medical organizations on Monday joined the growing chorus of opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to roll back the landmark legal opinion that greenhouse gases endanger public health and the welfare of the American people.
"The Trump administration's effort to rescind the EPA's endangerment finding is not only dangerous—it's an attack on science and on the health of the American people. Undoing the endangerment finding would remove the federal government's main tool to combat climate change," explained Katie Huffling, executive director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments.
The alliance joined the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health (MSCCH) in writing a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Other signatories include national organizations such as the American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, along with scores of state groups.
"The science is clear: Climate change is real, driven primarily by human-caused emissions, and harming both our health and the
economy today," the letter states. "The health harms of climate change caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are well understood and acknowledged by the American medical and scientific communities."
Today @docsforclimate.bsky.social released a letter signed by over 120 national/state orgs across medicine, nursing, pharmacy, & veterinary medicine, across 36 states recognizing #climatechange as a profound danger to our health. We’re asking EPA to protect the #endangermentfinding lnkd.in/grgEZ2qF
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— Lisa Patel, MD (@lisapatel.bsky.social) September 22, 2025 at 11:38 AM
The letter highlights various health impacts tied to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, which include an increased range for mosquitoes that spread diseases, worsening mental health, rising cardiovascular deaths, higher risks for respiratory conditions, and conditions that exacerbate chronic diseases. It emphasizes risks for pregnant people, children, and the elderly.
"No matter where they live, children are uniquely vulnerable to hazardous air pollution. Children are not little adults, and their lungs are still developing, putting them at greater risk for harmful impacts to their lifelong health and development," noted American Academy of Pediatrics president Dr. Susan J. Kressly.
"The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to repeal the endangerment finding would jeopardize the progress we’ve made to protect child health and leave children susceptible to chronic illnesses, like asthma," she warned.
Challenging the Trump administration's argument for rolling back the 2009 finding, MSCCH executive director Dr. Lisa Patel stressed that "the administration's claim that climate change is not a significant threat is contrary to what nurses, doctors, and pharmacists witness every day in our clinical practice."
"Beyond the devastating toll of wildfires, unprecedented extreme heat, and superstorms and floods that decimate entire communities, we are seeing clinics and hospitals themselves damaged or destroyed, and critical supply chains disrupted," Patel pointed out. "That means in times of crisis we cannot provide even the most basic care patients desperately need."
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners president Felesia Bowen declared that "it is unconscionable that the agency charged with protecting Americans from environmental threats would consider rescinding policies based on years of evidence-based practice."
The signatories are calling on the administration to not only withdraw its proposed rescission of the endangerment finding but also reaffirm the EPA's obligation to regulate GHG pollution under the Clean Air Act and strengthen protections against climate-related health threats through ambitious emissions standards.
"The science is compelling—climate change is a clear and present danger for the health of our patients and communities," said Dr. Alison Lee, Chair of the ATS Environmental Health Policy Committee. "Last week's National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report confirms what the medical community already knows: Climate change is harming our patients and, absent urgent action, the harms will escalate."
"Let us be clear—the medical community is standing together in its opposition to rolling back the EPA GHG endangerment finding," she added.
Also citing the report released last week, David Arkush, who directs the climate program at the watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a Monday statement that "the EPA is proposing to move exactly opposite to the way that the law and its mission require—flouting overwhelming scientific evidence and ignoring required procedures to reach a predetermined political outcome on behalf of mass polluters."
"The agency should reverse course and drop this misguided and unlawful action," he argued. "Failing that, the courts should roundly reject it."
His statement and the medical coalition's letter come on the last day of the public comment period for the proposal, and after more than 1,000 scientists, public health experts, and economists sent another letter to Zeldin last week detailing why they "strenuously object" to his effort to repeal the legal opinion that underpins federal climate regulations.
The effort to repeal the endangerment finding is just one prong of Big Oil-backed President Donald Trump's war on climate policies, which also includes ending the collection of pollution data, clawing back $7 billion in federal grants for low- and middle-income households to install rooftop solar panels, declaring a national energy emergency, and ditching the Paris Agreement.
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Local Leaders, Climate Groups Blast FERC Approval of Fracked Gas Pipeline Expansion
"This irresponsible decision will have implications on the health and well-being of communities, as well as lasting impact on generations to come," warned one campaigner.
Oct 19, 2023
Elected officials and environmental advocates in the Pacific Northwest on Thursday condemned U.S. regulators for greenlighting a Canadian company's fracked gas pipeline expansion project despite the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved TC Energy's Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) XPress Project, which would upgrade compressor stations in Kootenai County, Idaho; Sherman County, Oregon; and Walla Walla County, Washington.
"Today's decision by FERC flies in the face of what is morally and economically necessary to protect our communities from the worsening impacts of climate change," declared Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. "The federal government has finally begun making tremendous climate investments under the Inflation Reduction Act, but this decision essentially digs the hole deeper and locks in long-term capital investments that prevent us from reaching our national and state goals."
Along with Inslee, political opponents of the project include Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek; U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.); and U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
"Expanding this fossil fuel pipeline for 50 years—until 2073—saddles our children and their children with climate harm and fossil fuel costs," Inslee warned. "This fight isn't over. I'm thankful for the aligned efforts of Gov. Kotek, our senators, and our West Coast attorneys general to make clear why this pipeline is a dangerous detour on our path away from fossil fuels. We are more resolved than ever to keep this pipeline from increasing fossil fuel use."
Advocacy groups are also determined to prevent the expansion.
"FERC failed to listen to senators, governors, state attorneys general, tribes, and the public in its rubber stamp of unnecessary fracked gas in the Northwest," stressed Columbia Riverkeeper staff attorney Audrey Leonard. "The commission's decision violates the public interest and common sense, and we will file a petition for rehearing challenging this project."
"Since the analysis for this project was published, two major TC Energy pipelines have failed, causing safety hazards and spilling fossil fuel," Leonard noted. "If this were to happen in dry, rural, fire-prone lands or in the residential areas where TC Energy's GTN pipeline is located, it would be catastrophic."
Satya Austin-Opper of 350 Deschutes in Oregon stressed that "the GTN Xpress proposal would lock in a huge new influx of fracked gas for decades at the very moment that our communities are experiencing accelerated climate change impacts such as frequent drought and summers of smoke."
"And this pipeline runs right through our community," Austin-Opper continued, also noting the company's recent history. "I'm worried about how devastating the impact would be if the pipeline were to fail, which is certainly a possibility given the unsafe track record of TC Energy's other aging pipelines."
Oil Change International U.S. program co-manager Allie Rosenbluth argued that "with this decision to approve the GTN Xpress expansion, the Biden administration is again failing on its promises to protect environmental justice communities and the climate."
The FERC decision follows a historically hot summer that led United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to caution that "climate breakdown has begun" and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service's announcement earlier this month that 2023 is on track to be the warmest year ever recorded.
"Any expansion of fossil fuels is incompatible with a livable future," Rosenbluth asserted. "Oregon and Washington must continue to rise to the challenge and safeguard the health and well-being of communities and the climate by challenging FERC's approval of this unnecessary and dangerous gas expansion."
Leaders from Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in both states also highlighted the health impacts of the project.
"FERC's alarming decision to approve the GTN Xpress Project blatantly disregards concerns from community advocates and hundreds of health professionals in Oregon and within our region," said David De La Torre of Oregon PSR. "This irresponsible decision will have implications on the health and well-being of communities, as well as lasting impact on generations to come."
"As wildfires and extreme heat events continue to increase in frequency, straining health services and the well-being of Oregonians, it is imperative that we not continue to approve proposals that accelerate the climate crisis," he added. "We don't need more fracked gas being pumped through our state and communities."
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'The World Is at Stake': Defuse Nuclear War Kicks Off Nationwide Week of Action
"The need for action to curtail the possibility of nuclear conflict could not be more urgent," said the campaign's organizer.
Sep 24, 2023
Activists from the Defuse Nuclear War coalition on Sunday launched a week of action to demand the U.S. government take steps to reduce the existential threat of thermonuclear annihilation, including by reinstating arms control treaties, shutting down hair-trigger missiles, and engaging in "genuine diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine."
Defuse Nuclear War is organizing around 40 events across the United States. Demonstrations are planned in Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Tucson, Fresno, and Salt Lake City, pickets are scheduled across Washington state, vigils are set to take place in Hawaii and California, activists plan to unfurl a banner at a Lockheed Martin facility in Pennsylvania, and an interfaith gathering will be held outside United Nations headquarters in New York.
"Our coalition of activists is demanding that the Biden administration seriously consider the consequences of their inaction in addressing this threat."
"The U.S. has allowed far too many weapons treaties to lapse in recent years, and the Ukraine War threatens daily to plunge the world into nuclear war," Defuse Nuclear War national campaign organizer Ryan Black said in a statement. "Our coalition of activists is demanding that the Biden administration seriously consider the consequences of their inaction in addressing this threat."
Chris Nelson of the California group Chico Peace Alliance—which is planning a Monday march through the Chico State University campus and the city's downtown—said:
The annual obscene "Defense" Authorization Act maintains and grows constant war infrastructure that can only be curtailed by the action of civilians. The revolving door in Congress for the arms contractors now makes representative government ineffective for arms control. Nuclear weapons are illegal under the International Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It is up to us to make that normative and create effective pressure to get interim treaties reestablished.
The landmark treaty—which was signed in 2017 and went into effect in 2021—has been signed by 97 nations.
Sean Arent of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Washington Against Nuclear Weapons—which is holding 12 demonstrations around the Evergreen State later this month—said that "Washington state is at the center of the atomic world, with more deployed nuclear weapons than anywhere else in the United States based out of the Kitsap-Bangor Trident nuclear submarine base."
"The plutonium for some of the very first bombs were made at the ongoing disaster site known as Hanford, still radioactive to this day," Arent continued. "It is past time that our members of Congress recognize this legacy and lead our country away from nuclear weapons."
"We're asking our members of Congress to support justice for communities impacted by these weapons like the Marshallese, support diplomatic negotiations towards arm reductions, and to fight tooth and nail to phase out—not enhance—our nuclear weapons arsenal in the impending National Defense Authorization Act," Arent added. "The world is at stake."
This year, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientisits' Doomsday Clock—which tracks the world's proximity to a possible nuclear war—was set to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been to thermonuclear armageddon since it was created in 1947.
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