Climate Change Is Reversing Generations of Progress on Clean Air

Climate Change Is Reversing Generations of Progress on Clean Air



Before Republican Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States was a very different place. Rusted out vehicles littered empty lots and neighborhoods. Public beaches were littered. Factories belched toxins into the air with impunity.

Until 1970, there were few legal or regulatory mechanisms to hold polluters accountable. And before a factory was built or waste was dumped at any given location, there was no real review process; if polluters had the money, they could show up and leave their mess nearly anywhere they wanted.

Few people alive today can remember this time. Those who can are in their 60s, 70s, or older. What even they may forget after half a century is that before we began taking the quality of our land, water, and air seriously, America was a dirty place.

Sadly, there are places in this country where Americans are still waiting to be protected by their government from industrial waste. People in my home state of Louisiana are routinely subjected to contaminated land, tainted water, and caustic air. Whether it's here or in Flint, Michigan, or East Palestine, Ohio, or West Virginia, it always seems that the people living in the most toxic environments are always from the lowest income communities.

When it comes to air pollution, however, none of us in the United States is safe anymore. Petrochemical plants may be routinely located next to poor neighborhoods, but the climate change and the sprawling wildfires they are causing don't care about our social status or our ZIP codes.

Climate change is now reversing decades of progress that the United States has made on clean air, with rampant wildfires—now a common occurrence—darkening skies in cities and towns across North America. Research first shared by the nonprofit First Street Foundation and reported by multiple outlets shows that two of the most dangerous forms of air pollution, particulate matter and ground level ozone, are once again infiltrating our communities. These are the same toxins from old diesel vehicle tailpipes and smokestacks that we've spent decades trying to eradicate.

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