EXPERTS ADVISORY

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has revoked its 2009 declaration that greenhouse gas emissions are harmful to human health—known as the endangerment finding.

University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) experts are available to comment on this move as well as its impacts on the environment.

Andy Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, a position that holds joint appointments at the Ross School of Business and School for Environment and Sustainability.

“The EPA’s decision to rescind the endangerment finding on climate change is, in effect, saying that climate change is not a threat,” Hoffman said. “We can deny that threat, but the insurance industry most certainly is not, with increasing storm frequency and severity leading to rising property insurance rates, reduced coverage, increased deductibles, more exclusions and, at the extreme, complete withdrawal from certain markets.

“The EPA decision reminds me of a statement attributed to Galileo when forced to recant his belief that the Earth revolves around the sun: ‘Eppur si muove,’ meaning ‘And yet it moves.’ The Trump Administration can deny the reality and the threat of a changing climate, but that does not change the fact that it still changes.”

Contact: [email protected]

Liesl Eichler Clark, U-M’s first director of climate action engagement, leads a new initiative aimed at linking the university’s expanding sustainability research, collaborations and engagement with external partners to accelerate climate action across the state of Michigan and beyond.

Previously, Clark served as director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. She is an entrepreneur in the clean energy and sustainability space and co-founded the clean energy consulting firm 5 Lakes Energy. She was instrumental in the creation of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council and served as its president.

“Americans are suffering on a daily basis from our changing climate—from devastating floods to hurricanes to the now-commonplace challenge of wildfires—to name just a few of the harms,” Clark said. “Climate change is causing loss of human life and property and harming human health. Abandoning our collective national efforts to combat climate change through rescinding U.S. EPA’s ‘endangerment finding’ is short-sighted, terrifying and detrimental to the well-being of every human on this planet.

“Michigan is making progress on limiting our CO2 emissions in a cost-effective way that makes life better for Michiganders, led by the MI Healthy Climate Plan roadmap, relying on clean energy solutions that are often cheaper and easier to use. Clean energy jobs in Michigan continue to grow and our clean economy expands. We will continue to lead.”

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Parth Vaishnav is an assistant professor of sustainable systems. His research is focused on environmental and human health consequences of energy production and use, and his team works to find strategies to decarbonize the economy and to make climate mitigation and adaptation equitable.

“Climate change poses a risk to human health and is caused primarily by the emissions of greenhouse gases, the most important of which is carbon dioxide,” Vaishnav said. “The Clean Air Acts were promulgated to control air pollution that poses risks to human health. So, it seems logical that the endangerment finding should stand.”

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Gregory Keoleian is a professor of environment and sustainability and of civil and environmental engineering, and co-founder/co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems, as well as co-director of MI Hydrogen, U-M’s hydrogen initiative. He develops life-cycle models to analyze decarbonization pathways and accelerate sustainability solutions for clean energy transitions, alternative vehicle technologies, buildings and infrastructure, and food systems. He can speak to the administration’s actions that slow and reverse climate and sustainability progress in automotive, energy and more.

“Denying the science would be reckless and irresponsible. In 2009, the EPA issued its science-based finding that the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare,” Keoleian said. “The endangerment finding requires the EPA to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources.

“The administration’s proposed action would set back industry investment, hurt U.S. economic competitiveness, take away clean energy jobs, reverse decarbonization progress and will ultimately result in greater climate change related damages and costs to society—for example, from flooding, wildfires, droughts, insurance risks, human health effects. The magnitude of the disruption caused would be devastating for business and industry, government agencies, communities and individuals with future generations most severely impacted. Disregarding climate pollution, one of the most critical threats to humanity, would further isolate the United States from the rest of the world. Nobody wins from this action; we lose in countless ways.”

Contact: [email protected]

Jonathan Overpeck, an interdisciplinary climate scientist and dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability, is an expert on climate and weather extremes, sea-level rise, the impacts of climate change and options for dealing with it. He served as a lead author on the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 and 2014 reports.

“I worked with a team of fellow climate scientists who weighed in as experts on the original endangerment finding almost 20 years ago to publish an updated paper recently highlighting that the scientific evidence has only become much stronger that climate change is endangering human health and welfare—and much more.

“Climate change and its impacts are accelerating and are impacting lives and livelihoods in the U.S. more than ever. Climate change is supercharging extreme heat, drought, wildfires, extreme rainfall, flooding, sea level rise and challenges to human health in the U.S. and around the globe.”

Contact: [email protected]

The full experts advisory can be found on the Michigan News website.