ECO CRIMINALS
Here's why Trump is dangerously wrong about how climate change threatens our health
The Conversation
February 14, 2026
US lawmaker moves to shield oil companies from climate casesThe Conversation
February 14, 2026
The Trump administration took a major step in its efforts to unravel America’s climate policies on Thursday, when it moved to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding — a formal determination that six greenhouse gases that drive climate change, including carbon dioxide and methane from burning fossil fuels, endanger public health and welfare.
But the administration’s arguments in dismissing the health risks of climate change are not only factually wrong, they’re deeply dangerous to Americans’ health and safety.
As physicians, epidemiologists and environmental health scientists, we’ve seen growing evidence of the connections between climate change and harm to people’s health. Here’s a look at the health risks everyone face from climate change.
Extreme heat
Greenhouse gases from vehicles, power plants and other sources accumulate in the atmosphere, trapping heat and holding it close to Earth’s surface like a blanket. Too much of it causes global temperatures to rise, leaving more people exposed to dangerous heat more often.
Most people who get minor heat illnesses will recover, but more extreme exposure, especially without enough hydration and a way to cool off, can be fatal. People who work outside, are elderly or have underlying illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney diseases are often at the greatest risk.
Heat deaths have been rising globally, up 23 percent from the 1990s to the 2010s, when the average year saw more than half a million heat-related deaths. Here in the U.S., the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome killed hundreds of people.
Climate scientists predict that with advancing climate change, many areas of the world, including U.S. cities such as Miami, Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas, will confront many more days each year hot enough to threaten human survival.
Extreme weather
Warmer air holds more moisture, so climate change brings increasing rainfall and storm intensity and worsening flooding, as many U.S. communities have experienced in recent years. Warmer ocean water also fuels more powerful hurricanes.
Increased flooding carries health risks, including drownings, injuries and water contamination from human pathogens and toxic chemicals. People cleaning out flooded homes also face risks from mold exposure, injuries and mental distress.
Climate change also worsens droughts, disrupting food supplies and causing respiratory illness from dust. Rising temperatures and aridity dry out forests and grasslands, making them a set-up for wildfires.
Air pollution
Wildfires, along with other climate effects, are worsening air quality around the country.
Wildfire smoke is a toxic soup of microscopic particles (known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5) that can penetrate deep in the lungs and hazardous compounds such as lead, formaldehyde and dioxins generated when homes, cars and other materials burn at high temperatures. Smoke plumes can travel thousands of miles downwind and trigger heart attacks and elevate lung cancer risks, among other harms.
Meanwhile, warmer conditions favor the formation of ground-level ozone, a heart and lung irritant. Burning of fossil fuels also generates dangerous air pollutants that cause a long list of health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma flare-ups and lung cancer.
Infectious diseases
Because they are cold-blooded organisms, insects are directly influenced by temperature. So with rising temperatures, mosquito biting rates rise as well. Warming also accelerates the development of disease agents that mosquitoes transmit.
Mosquito-borne dengue fever has turned up in Florida, Texas, Hawaii, Arizona and California. New York state just saw its first locally acquired case of chikungunya virus, also transmitted by mosquitoes.
And it’s not just insect-borne infections. Warmer temperatures increase diarrhea and foodborne illness from Vibrio cholerae and other bacteria and heavy rainfall increases sewage-contaminated stormwater overflows into lakes and streams. At the other water extreme, drought in the desert Southwest increases the risk of coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection known as valley fever.
Other impacts
Climate change threatens health in numerous other ways. Longer pollen seasons increase allergen exposures. Lower crop yields reduce access to nutritious foods.
Mental health also suffers, with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress following disasters, and increased rates of violent crime and suicide tied to high-temperature days.
Young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with preexisting medical conditions are among the highest-risk groups. Lower-income people also face greater risk because of higher rates of chronic disease, higher exposures to climate hazards and fewer resources for protection, medical care and recovery from disasters.
Policy-based evidence-making
The evidence linking climate change with health has grown considerably since 2009. Today, it is incontrovertible.
Studies show that heat, air pollution, disease spread and food insecurity linked to climate change are worsening and costing millions of lives around the world each year. This evidence also aligns with Americans’ lived experiences. Anybody who has fallen ill during a heat wave, struggled while breathing wildfire smoke or been injured cleaning up from a hurricane knows that climate change can threaten human health.
Yet the Trump administration is willfully ignoring this evidence in proclaiming that climate change does not endanger health.
Its move to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding, which underpins many climate regulations, fits with a broader set of policy measures, including cutting support for renewable energy and subsidizing fossil fuel industries that endanger public health. In addition to rescinding the endangerment finding, the Trump administration also moved to roll back emissions limits on vehicles – the leading source of U.S. carbon emissions and a major contributor to air pollutants such as PM2.5 and ozone.
It’s not just about endangerment
The evidence is clear: Climate change endangers human health. But there’s a flip side to the story.
When governments work to reduce the causes of climate change, they help tackle some of the world’s biggest health challenges. Cleaner vehicles and cleaner electricity mean cleaner air — and less heart and lung disease. More walking and cycling on safe sidewalks and bike paths mean more physical activity and lower chronic disease risks. The list goes on. By confronting climate change, we promote good health.
To really make America healthy, in our view, the nation should acknowledge the facts behind the endangerment finding and double down on our transition from fossil fuels to a healthy, clean energy future.
But the administration’s arguments in dismissing the health risks of climate change are not only factually wrong, they’re deeply dangerous to Americans’ health and safety.
As physicians, epidemiologists and environmental health scientists, we’ve seen growing evidence of the connections between climate change and harm to people’s health. Here’s a look at the health risks everyone face from climate change.
Extreme heat
Greenhouse gases from vehicles, power plants and other sources accumulate in the atmosphere, trapping heat and holding it close to Earth’s surface like a blanket. Too much of it causes global temperatures to rise, leaving more people exposed to dangerous heat more often.
Most people who get minor heat illnesses will recover, but more extreme exposure, especially without enough hydration and a way to cool off, can be fatal. People who work outside, are elderly or have underlying illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney diseases are often at the greatest risk.
Heat deaths have been rising globally, up 23 percent from the 1990s to the 2010s, when the average year saw more than half a million heat-related deaths. Here in the U.S., the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome killed hundreds of people.
Climate scientists predict that with advancing climate change, many areas of the world, including U.S. cities such as Miami, Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas, will confront many more days each year hot enough to threaten human survival.
Extreme weather
Warmer air holds more moisture, so climate change brings increasing rainfall and storm intensity and worsening flooding, as many U.S. communities have experienced in recent years. Warmer ocean water also fuels more powerful hurricanes.
Increased flooding carries health risks, including drownings, injuries and water contamination from human pathogens and toxic chemicals. People cleaning out flooded homes also face risks from mold exposure, injuries and mental distress.
Climate change also worsens droughts, disrupting food supplies and causing respiratory illness from dust. Rising temperatures and aridity dry out forests and grasslands, making them a set-up for wildfires.
Air pollution
Wildfires, along with other climate effects, are worsening air quality around the country.
Wildfire smoke is a toxic soup of microscopic particles (known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5) that can penetrate deep in the lungs and hazardous compounds such as lead, formaldehyde and dioxins generated when homes, cars and other materials burn at high temperatures. Smoke plumes can travel thousands of miles downwind and trigger heart attacks and elevate lung cancer risks, among other harms.
Meanwhile, warmer conditions favor the formation of ground-level ozone, a heart and lung irritant. Burning of fossil fuels also generates dangerous air pollutants that cause a long list of health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma flare-ups and lung cancer.
Infectious diseases
Because they are cold-blooded organisms, insects are directly influenced by temperature. So with rising temperatures, mosquito biting rates rise as well. Warming also accelerates the development of disease agents that mosquitoes transmit.
Mosquito-borne dengue fever has turned up in Florida, Texas, Hawaii, Arizona and California. New York state just saw its first locally acquired case of chikungunya virus, also transmitted by mosquitoes.
And it’s not just insect-borne infections. Warmer temperatures increase diarrhea and foodborne illness from Vibrio cholerae and other bacteria and heavy rainfall increases sewage-contaminated stormwater overflows into lakes and streams. At the other water extreme, drought in the desert Southwest increases the risk of coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection known as valley fever.
Other impacts
Climate change threatens health in numerous other ways. Longer pollen seasons increase allergen exposures. Lower crop yields reduce access to nutritious foods.
Mental health also suffers, with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress following disasters, and increased rates of violent crime and suicide tied to high-temperature days.
Young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with preexisting medical conditions are among the highest-risk groups. Lower-income people also face greater risk because of higher rates of chronic disease, higher exposures to climate hazards and fewer resources for protection, medical care and recovery from disasters.
Policy-based evidence-making
The evidence linking climate change with health has grown considerably since 2009. Today, it is incontrovertible.
Studies show that heat, air pollution, disease spread and food insecurity linked to climate change are worsening and costing millions of lives around the world each year. This evidence also aligns with Americans’ lived experiences. Anybody who has fallen ill during a heat wave, struggled while breathing wildfire smoke or been injured cleaning up from a hurricane knows that climate change can threaten human health.
Yet the Trump administration is willfully ignoring this evidence in proclaiming that climate change does not endanger health.
Its move to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding, which underpins many climate regulations, fits with a broader set of policy measures, including cutting support for renewable energy and subsidizing fossil fuel industries that endanger public health. In addition to rescinding the endangerment finding, the Trump administration also moved to roll back emissions limits on vehicles – the leading source of U.S. carbon emissions and a major contributor to air pollutants such as PM2.5 and ozone.
It’s not just about endangerment
The evidence is clear: Climate change endangers human health. But there’s a flip side to the story.
When governments work to reduce the causes of climate change, they help tackle some of the world’s biggest health challenges. Cleaner vehicles and cleaner electricity mean cleaner air — and less heart and lung disease. More walking and cycling on safe sidewalks and bike paths mean more physical activity and lower chronic disease risks. The list goes on. By confronting climate change, we promote good health.
To really make America healthy, in our view, the nation should acknowledge the facts behind the endangerment finding and double down on our transition from fossil fuels to a healthy, clean energy future.
By Jonathan Levy, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University; Howard Frumkin, Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington;
Jonathan PatzProfessor of Environmental Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Vijay LimayeAdjunct Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This article includes material from a story originally published Nov. 12, 2025.
By AFP
February 12, 2026
Dozens of cases against oil copmanies modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts -- including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering
- Copyright AFP/File Patrick T. Fallon
Issam AHMED
A US lawmaker is drafting legislation to block a wave of state and local climate-damage lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, advancing a top priority of the oil and gas industry.
Republican Representative Harriet Hageman announced the effort during a hearing on Wednesday, following a letter last year from a group of attorneys general from conservative-led states urging the creation of a federal “liability shield” similar to the one Congress granted gunmakers in 2005.
Hageman also targeted so-called climate “superfund” laws, enacted in New York and Vermont and under consideration in other states, which require fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate-related damages tied to the destabilization of the global climate system.
“Clearly, this is an area in which Congress has a role to play,” Hageman, of the oil-rich western state of Wyoming, told Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“To that end, I’m working with my colleagues in both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling both these state laws and the lawsuits that could destroy energy affordability for consumers.”
Dozens of cases modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts — including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering, meaning acting like a criminal enterprise.
Michigan last month sued oil majors in federal court, alleging they had acted as a cartel in an unlawful conspiracy by preventing meaningful competition from renewable energy.
Environmental advocates see such lawsuits as crucial means for climate accountability as President Donald Trump’s second term has seen the United States go all-in to boost fossil fuels and block renewables.
Some cases have been dismissed, and none have yet gone to trial — though crucially, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to intervene and block them.
Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s largest trade group, spoke out against the cases in a keynote address last month.
Material on API’s website confirms the group wishes to “Protect US energy producers and consumers from abusive state climate lawsuits and the expansion of climate ‘superfund’ policies that bypass Congress and threaten affordability.”
Richard Wiles, president of the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement the announcement was proof “the fossil fuel industry is panicking and pleading with Congress for a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Any legislation however could face an uphill battle since Republicans only enjoy a slim majority in the House of Representatives and bills normally require 60 votes in the Senate, where they hold 53 seats of the 100 seats.
Issam AHMED
A US lawmaker is drafting legislation to block a wave of state and local climate-damage lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, advancing a top priority of the oil and gas industry.
Republican Representative Harriet Hageman announced the effort during a hearing on Wednesday, following a letter last year from a group of attorneys general from conservative-led states urging the creation of a federal “liability shield” similar to the one Congress granted gunmakers in 2005.
Hageman also targeted so-called climate “superfund” laws, enacted in New York and Vermont and under consideration in other states, which require fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate-related damages tied to the destabilization of the global climate system.
“Clearly, this is an area in which Congress has a role to play,” Hageman, of the oil-rich western state of Wyoming, told Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“To that end, I’m working with my colleagues in both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling both these state laws and the lawsuits that could destroy energy affordability for consumers.”
Dozens of cases modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts — including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering, meaning acting like a criminal enterprise.
Michigan last month sued oil majors in federal court, alleging they had acted as a cartel in an unlawful conspiracy by preventing meaningful competition from renewable energy.
Environmental advocates see such lawsuits as crucial means for climate accountability as President Donald Trump’s second term has seen the United States go all-in to boost fossil fuels and block renewables.
Some cases have been dismissed, and none have yet gone to trial — though crucially, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to intervene and block them.
Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s largest trade group, spoke out against the cases in a keynote address last month.
Material on API’s website confirms the group wishes to “Protect US energy producers and consumers from abusive state climate lawsuits and the expansion of climate ‘superfund’ policies that bypass Congress and threaten affordability.”
Richard Wiles, president of the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement the announcement was proof “the fossil fuel industry is panicking and pleading with Congress for a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Any legislation however could face an uphill battle since Republicans only enjoy a slim majority in the House of Representatives and bills normally require 60 votes in the Senate, where they hold 53 seats of the 100 seats.
Greece’s Cycladic islands swept up in concrete fever
By AFP
February 12, 2026
Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis has called the construction project on the island an 'environmental crime' - Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS
By AFP
February 12, 2026
Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis has called the construction project on the island an 'environmental crime' - Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS
Yannick PASQUET
On the sloping shoreline of the Greek Aegean island of Milos, a vast construction site has left a gaping wound into the island’s trademark volcanic rock.
The foundations are for a hotel extension that attracted so much controversy last year that the country’s top administrative court ended up temporarily blocking its building permit.
Construction machinery still dots the site for a planned 59-room extension to the luxury resort, some of whose suites have their own swimming pools.
Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis calls the project an “environmental crime”.
“The geological uniqueness of Milos is known worldwide. We don’t want its identity to change,” he told AFP in his office, adorned with a copy of the island’s most famous export, the Hellenistic-era statue of the love goddess Venus.
Fuelled by a tourism boom, real estate fever has broken out across the Cyclades archipelago, threatening to destroy iconic landscapes of whitewashed houses and blue church domes.
In December, several mayors from the Cyclades as well as the Dodecanese — which includes the highly touristic islands of Rhodes and Kos — sounded the alarm.
“The very existence of our islands is threatened,” they warned in a resolution initiated by the mayor of Santorini, Nikos Zorzos.
Tourism has become “a field for planting luxury residences to sell or rent,” said Zorzos, whose island — a top global destination — welcomes roughly 3.5 million visitors for a population of 15,500.
– Rejecting ‘plunder’ –
The “Cycladic islands are not grounds for pharaonic projects”, the mayors continued.
V Tourism, the company operating the hotel, argues that the expansion was approved in 2024 with “favourable opinions from all competent authorities”.
But Mikelis, the mayor, noted that there are legislation “loopholes” when it comes to construction.
Like Santorini, Milos is a volcanic isle that is home to one of Greece’s most unique beaches, Sarakiniko.
With its spectacular white formations rounded by erosion, the so-called ‘moon beach’ has bathers packed tighter than an astronaut’s suit during summertime.
Yet Sarakiniko is not protected under Greek law.
Another hotel project there was blocked last year, and the environment ministry has given the owners a month’s time to fill in its construction dig.
– ‘Voracious’ –
Ioannis Spilanis, emeritus professor at the University of the Aegean, says what is happening in the Cyclades “is voracious, predatory real estate”.
Once marginal land intended for grazing “have become lucrative assets. (Locals) are offered very attractive prices that are still low for investors.”
“Then you build or resell for ten times more,” he said.
In Ios, a small island with a vibrant nightlife, a single investor — a Greek who made a fortune on Wall Street — now owns 30 percent of the island, the mayors said in their December statement.
Tourism contributes between 28 and 33.7 percent of GDP, according to the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), making it a key sector that has propped up the country’s economy for decades.
Arrivals have been breaking record after record with more than 40 million visitors in 2024, a performance that was likely surpassed in 2025.
In Milos, which has more than 5,000 inhabitants, 48 new hotel projects are currently underway, according to the mayor, and 157 new building permits were awarded from January to the end of October 2025, according to the state statistical body.
On Paros, which has also experienced a real estate frenzy for several years, 459 building permits were granted over the same period, and on Santorini, 461.
The most ambitious projects in Greece are classified as “strategic investments”, a fast-track procedure created in 2019 to facilitate investments deemed priorities.
But “there’s often no oversight,” said Spilanis, the academic.
– Golden goose –
And many of the new constructions are far removed from traditional Cycladic architecture.
But the tourism industry is a vital source of income on islands which are usually deserted in winter, and offering few other job prospects.
“This island is a diamond, but unfortunately in recent years it’s become nothing but money, money, money,” fumes a resident who spends half the year in Germany.
“But if I say that in public, everyone will jump down my throat!” she said.
In a 2024 report, the state ombudsman of the Hellenic Republic stressed the deterioration in quality of life on islands where residents can no longer find housing, as many owners prioritise lucrative short-term rentals, while waste management and water resources are also under major strain.
But there are signs of a slowdown in the Cyclades.
Santorini last year saw a 12.8-percent drop in air arrivals between June and September, while Mykonos had to settle for a meagre 2.4-percent increase.
On the sloping shoreline of the Greek Aegean island of Milos, a vast construction site has left a gaping wound into the island’s trademark volcanic rock.
The foundations are for a hotel extension that attracted so much controversy last year that the country’s top administrative court ended up temporarily blocking its building permit.
Construction machinery still dots the site for a planned 59-room extension to the luxury resort, some of whose suites have their own swimming pools.
Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis calls the project an “environmental crime”.
“The geological uniqueness of Milos is known worldwide. We don’t want its identity to change,” he told AFP in his office, adorned with a copy of the island’s most famous export, the Hellenistic-era statue of the love goddess Venus.
Fuelled by a tourism boom, real estate fever has broken out across the Cyclades archipelago, threatening to destroy iconic landscapes of whitewashed houses and blue church domes.
In December, several mayors from the Cyclades as well as the Dodecanese — which includes the highly touristic islands of Rhodes and Kos — sounded the alarm.
“The very existence of our islands is threatened,” they warned in a resolution initiated by the mayor of Santorini, Nikos Zorzos.
Tourism has become “a field for planting luxury residences to sell or rent,” said Zorzos, whose island — a top global destination — welcomes roughly 3.5 million visitors for a population of 15,500.
– Rejecting ‘plunder’ –
The “Cycladic islands are not grounds for pharaonic projects”, the mayors continued.
V Tourism, the company operating the hotel, argues that the expansion was approved in 2024 with “favourable opinions from all competent authorities”.
But Mikelis, the mayor, noted that there are legislation “loopholes” when it comes to construction.
Like Santorini, Milos is a volcanic isle that is home to one of Greece’s most unique beaches, Sarakiniko.
With its spectacular white formations rounded by erosion, the so-called ‘moon beach’ has bathers packed tighter than an astronaut’s suit during summertime.
Yet Sarakiniko is not protected under Greek law.
Another hotel project there was blocked last year, and the environment ministry has given the owners a month’s time to fill in its construction dig.
– ‘Voracious’ –
Ioannis Spilanis, emeritus professor at the University of the Aegean, says what is happening in the Cyclades “is voracious, predatory real estate”.
Once marginal land intended for grazing “have become lucrative assets. (Locals) are offered very attractive prices that are still low for investors.”
“Then you build or resell for ten times more,” he said.
In Ios, a small island with a vibrant nightlife, a single investor — a Greek who made a fortune on Wall Street — now owns 30 percent of the island, the mayors said in their December statement.
Tourism contributes between 28 and 33.7 percent of GDP, according to the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), making it a key sector that has propped up the country’s economy for decades.
Arrivals have been breaking record after record with more than 40 million visitors in 2024, a performance that was likely surpassed in 2025.
In Milos, which has more than 5,000 inhabitants, 48 new hotel projects are currently underway, according to the mayor, and 157 new building permits were awarded from January to the end of October 2025, according to the state statistical body.
On Paros, which has also experienced a real estate frenzy for several years, 459 building permits were granted over the same period, and on Santorini, 461.
The most ambitious projects in Greece are classified as “strategic investments”, a fast-track procedure created in 2019 to facilitate investments deemed priorities.
But “there’s often no oversight,” said Spilanis, the academic.
– Golden goose –
And many of the new constructions are far removed from traditional Cycladic architecture.
But the tourism industry is a vital source of income on islands which are usually deserted in winter, and offering few other job prospects.
“This island is a diamond, but unfortunately in recent years it’s become nothing but money, money, money,” fumes a resident who spends half the year in Germany.
“But if I say that in public, everyone will jump down my throat!” she said.
In a 2024 report, the state ombudsman of the Hellenic Republic stressed the deterioration in quality of life on islands where residents can no longer find housing, as many owners prioritise lucrative short-term rentals, while waste management and water resources are also under major strain.
But there are signs of a slowdown in the Cyclades.
Santorini last year saw a 12.8-percent drop in air arrivals between June and September, while Mykonos had to settle for a meagre 2.4-percent increase.
