The crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.
— Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist No. 1 (1787)
Environmentalist No. 1
A Scientific Defense of the Environment and Health
Joseph G. Allen, Ari Bernstein, Tracey J. Woodruff
"We put you upon your guard against all attempts, from whatever quarter, to influence your decision in a matter of the utmost moment to our collective welfare, by any impressions other than those which may result from the evidence of truth." — Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist No. 1 (1787)
Environmentalist No. 2
The Trump Administration and the Environment - Heed the Science
Jonathan M. Samet, Thomas A. Burke, Bernard D. Goldstein
“Throughout the history of U.S. environmental protection, unforeseen challenges have had to be addressed with the best available science. We are certain that unforeseen challenges will continue to arise and that we therefore need a vibrant environmental health science enterprise.”
Environmentalist No. 3
Preventive Medicine for the Planet and Its Peoples
David J. Hunter, Howard Frumkin, Ashish Jha
"Health is the human face of climate change."
Environmentalist No. 4
Don't Rollback the Vehicle Fuel Standards
Jody Freeman
"Weakening these standards would be a mistake for consumers, the environment and the auto industry itself."
Environmentalist No. 5
The Devastating Consequences of Weakening the EPA
Gina McCarthy
"During President Barack Obama’s second term, I headed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The core mission at EPA always has been — and always will be — protecting public health."
Environmentalist No. 6
We Can't Delay Action on Environmental Public Health
Anna Young, Augusta Williams, Jasamina McBride
Signed by 118 students from 23 universities
"Political leaders have long invoked the grandchildren of tomorrow when speaking of the need to protect the environment. We are those grandchildren, and we are here now."
Environmentalist No. 7
Use Science to Keep Kids Healthy
Jennifer Lowry
"Washington's aversion to science-based policy is costing children their health."
Environmentalist No. 8
Forging A Connection Between Health Care And Infrastructure
Linda P. Fried
"With better drinking water, less pollution, and more alternative transportation routes, we are preventing disease through the right infrastructure–a wise investment with a high return for all of us. It’s time to develop and advance that vision."
Environmentalist No. 9
The Womb Is No Protection From Toxic Chemicals
Frederica Perera
"Until a few decades ago, the popular but falsely reassuring belief was that babies in the womb were perfectly protected by the placenta and that children were just “little adults,†requiring no special protections from environmental threats. We now know that a host of chemicals, pollutants and viruses readily travel across the placenta from mother to fetus, pre-polluting or pre-infecting a baby even before birth."
Environmentalist No. 10
The Dishonest HONEST Act
David Michaels, Thomas Burke
"The Trump administration aims to eliminate many regulations and make it more difficult to adopt new ones. More subtle and dangerous are attempts in Congress to undermine public health and environmental protections by limiting the use of scientific evidence under the guise of increased transparency. This effort, which as envisioned by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leadership would greatly reduce the amount of science used in decision-making, undermines the credibility and application of scientific evidence, weakens the scientific enterprise, and imperils public and environmental health."
Environmentalist No. 11
Measuring The Health Of The Climate By How Sick We Aren't
Jonathan Levy, Madeleine K. Scammell, Wendy Heiger-Bernays
"When a disease is cured, we marvel at the wonders of modern medicine. But when was the last time we looked at a loved one who was healthy and marveled at all of the things that prevented them from becoming sick in the first place?"
Environmentalist No. 12
Cities and States Must Take Lead on Climate Change:
Policies Can Yield Substantial Health Dividends
Jonathan Buonocore, Ari Bernstein, Jonathan Levy
"Cities and states can lead on mitigation while growing their economies (as California has demonstrated) and improving the health of their residents. Carbon fee-and-rebate policies are not the only policy available to states and local policymakers."
Environmentalist No. 13
U.S. Workforce In Danger of Losing Protections
Kathleen Rest, David Michaels
"In a flurry of recent activity aimed at cutting the budget and rolling back protections, the Trump administration is compromising worker safety. If you work, or know someone who does, you need to pay attention — people’s lives are literally at stake. The Trump administration proposed a 40 percent cut in the budget of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the nation’s primary federal agency conducting research, transferring knowledge to employers and workers, and making recommendations for preventing work-related illness and injury.""
Environmentalist No. 14
Pollution, health, and the planet: time for decisive action
Pamela Das, Richard Horton
"For decades, pollution and its harmful effects on people's health, the environment, and the planet have been neglected both by governments and the international development community. Pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths in 2015. Pollution is a winnable battle. Now is the moment to accelerate our collective response."
Environmentalist No. 15
The Administration's Assault on EPA and Clean Water is an Assault on Public Health
Doris Browne
"Just this past summer, the new EPA Administrator announced rolling back the Clean Water Rule, which protects waterways that provide drinking water for one in three Americans. Now is not the time to weaken public health protections or obstruct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to do its job and help our communities in need."
Environmentalist No. 16
Forever Chemicals
Joseph Allen
"They say nothing lasts forever. Nothing, that is, except a group of toxic chemicals that may be associated with testicular cancer, kidney cancer, high cholesterol and suppression of vaccine effectiveness in children. They are now in nearly all of our bodies, are found in the air and water around the globe, and they never go away. They are Forever Chemicals."
Environmentalist No. 17
Beyond Climate: A Student Perspective
EMILY T. BROAS, ALDÍS ELFARSDÓTTIR, PIERS I.I.O. MACNAUGHTON, and CHARLOTTE C. WAGNER
"Present and future generations depend on us to build a resilient world in the face of the significant climate-driven changes that we are seeing in our lifetimes."
Environmentalist No. 18
Cutting EPA Indoor Air Pollution Research Will Cost Money and Lives
Brent Stephens, Richard Corsi
"Much of what we have learned in this country about how our indoor environments affect human health and productivity has come from federally funded research. The research and indoor environmental management programs that the Trump administration proposes to cut from the EPA have been crucial to supporting this work"
Environmentalist No. 19
Why Don't Americans Care About Chemicals?: A Student Perspective
Anna Robuck
"Although relatively few chemical pollutants are thought to be harmful to human health, only a paltry 2 percent or so of extant chemicals have been well-vetted for safety and toxicity by the US Environmental Protection Agency. "
Environmentalist No. 20
EPA's Proposed Repeal Will Make Americans Sicker
Harold P. Wimmer, Stephen C. Crane
"For the public, our doctors and our patients, the urgency of this issue cannot be emphasized enough. We urge the EPA to stand up for the health of all Americans and enforce, rather than repeal, the Clean Power Plan."
Environmentalist No. 21
The Aliso Canyon gas leak was a disaster. There are 10,000 more storage wells out there just like it.
Drew Michanowicz
"The blowout at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage well was one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S history. We estimated that out of the approximately 14,000 storage wells nationwide, about 2,700 might be Aliso-type wells."
Environmentalist No. 22
Want air-conditioning and a healthier planet? Here's one step we can take today.
Joseph G. Allen, Jose Guillermo Cedeno-Laurent
"The Kigali Amendment...U.S. manufacturers want it. Businesses want it. Legislators from both sides of the aisle want it. And our health depends on it. What’s delaying President Trump?"
Environmentalist No. 23
Climate change isn't just cooking the planet. It's cooking our workforce.
David Arkush, David Michaels
"Heat is the leading weather-related killer in the United States, and the toll (estimates range up to 1,300 deaths per year) will rise steeply in the coming decades. At present we have no federal rules to protect workers from heat; that needs to change."
Environmentalist No. 24
President Trump’s retreat on the environment is affecting communities across the U.S.
Eric Lipton, Steve Eder, John Branch
"In just two years, President Trump has unleashed a regulatory rollback…with little parallel in the past half-century The trade-offs, while often out of public view, are real — frighteningly so, for some people — imperiling progress in cleaning up the air we breathe and the water we drink, and in some cases upending the very relationship with the environment around us."