Our Moral Center

“We’ve got about 350,000 people who are dying prematurely from the burning of fossil fuels in our country….  That’s more people who are dying from air pollution than are dying from gun violence. More people are dying from air pollution than are dying from car crashes. More people are dying from air pollution than are dying from overdoses of drugs.”

—Mustafa Santiago Ali commenting on research published by Harvard University during a national Climate Hope Affiliates monthly webinar

The climate crisis is not a moral issue located in a distant future. It is a life and death struggle right now. It is a justice issue right now. Not everyone suffers equally from the pollution of fossil fuel industry. The inequities of our society are reflected in who bears the cost of pollution. These inequities take many forms whether it is racial and economic disparities witnessed in communities or the impacts of toxic air emissions on the bodies of the young and old. In Climate Hope Affiliates, we find our moral center in responding to these injustices.

While there is an incalculable toll to the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse climate progress and accelerate climate devastation, there have been some estimates of the human cost of the administration’s efforts to dismantle and defund the EPA. The former EPA staff at the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) concluded earlier this year that 12 of the many rollbacks of environmental protections proposed by the head of the EPA would “lead to nearly 200,000 premature deaths through 2050” due to increased air pollution. Moreover, these rollbacks would “cause more than 10,000 asthma attacks every day throughout the United States.” EPN notes that some of the many areas of concern that remain unquantified include cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, and dementia as well as reproductive and developmental health impacts.

In some ways, what happens to pollution levels during a federal government shutdown foreshadows what would happen under a dismantled EPA. According to one scientific study, during a government shutdown in 2018-2019, coal plants “significantly increased their particulate matter emissions due to the EPA’s furlough.” This form of pollution is linked to thousands of deaths in the United States each year. Jeremy Symons, a former EPA official, noted the concern that a shutdown can give license for “the worst polluters” to poison our environment without fear of being caught. He observed, “Nobody will be holding polluters accountable for what they dump into the air we breathe, in the water we drink while EPA is shut down.”

As a society, we can do better than this. By utilizing successful advocacy methods, Climate Hope Affiliates gives its members the opportunity to make a difference in mobilizing a nationwide moral response to the climate injustices we face today.

“This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right.”

—Jeremiah 22: 3