2025-03-17
9 分钟Happy Monday, listeners, for Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.
Let's get this week started with our usual science news roundup.
First, unfortunately, I need to update you on some troubling environmental news.
Last Wednesday, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin,
announced that the agency plans to get rid of or weaken many environmental rules and policies.
Zeldin said the EPA could even pivot away from officially recognizing
that greenhouse gases are bad for us.
Back in 2007,
the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act.
That meant
that the EPA needed to determine whether these emissions by new motor vehicles were tied to air pollution that could harm the public or
if the science was too uncertain.
Well, the science was certain.
In 2009, the EPA officially determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health.
Zeldin announced that the administration plans to reconsider these findings.
In a video Zeldin posted on X formerly known as Twitter about the plans,
he referred to the determination as the Holy Grail of the climate change religion.
It's important to Note that since 2009,
the evidence that greenhouse gas emissions put human lives in danger has only grown.
According to Zeldin,