Sound Science Helps U.S. Answer Challenge of Climate Change

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy visited the Alaska’s rapidly receding Portage Lake Glacier in August 2013 to highlight the urgency of implementing President Obama's Climate Action Plan.

Washington — “People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts,” Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy told an audience at the National Academy of Sciences on April 28. “When we follow the science, we all win. This country and the world move forward.”

McCarthy briefly recapped the EPA’s history of successes since its founding in 1970, acknowledging the controversy that accompanied some agency actions while maintaining its overall achievements are undeniable.

“Science continues to be the engine that drives America's health, prosperity and innovation — and pushes global progress. And I'm proud to say that EPA has helped shape that progress for years. Along the way, science has been our professor and our protector,” she said.

CLIMATE CHANGE

On the threat of climate change, the need to follow the science and the risks of ignoring it “are crystal clear,” McCarthy said.

The next U.S. National Climate Assessment, which is nearing completion, is based upon the best scientific data currently available and its findings should frame actions to reduce the threats climate change poses to human health and safety. The public cannot let critics of science “continue to manufacture uncertainties that stop us from taking urgently needed climate action,” according to the administrator.

“Climate evidence is clear: Arctic sea ice is receding to new lows. Seas are rising to new highs. And the cost of inaction is escalating: 2012 was a historically expensive year for disasters, with a price tag of $110 billion dollars. Climate extremes impact insurance premiums, property taxes, food prices, medical bills, and more,” she said, adding that “denial and inaction are the biggest dangers of all.”

McCarthy said President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to cut greenhouse gas emission is critically important for preparing for climate change impacts, and she pledged the EPA will deliver “without fail” the portions of the plan assigned to it.

U.S. POLLUTION CONTROL RECORD

The creation of EPA in 1970 paved the way for cleaner air and new technologies like the catalytic converter and smokestack scrubbers — American innovations that cut tail-pipe emissions, slashed power plant pollution, and changed the world.

Science remains the foundation for strong, sensible regulatory standards, McCarthy said. Science linked air pollution to lung disease; science connected toxic fumes with impaired brain development; and science identified the dangers of acid rain.

In 2014, thanks to decades of enforcing science-based laws and regulations, blood lead levels in American children have dropped dramatically, and U.S. emission levels of pervasive air pollutants that harm human health and cause acid rain have been reduced by nearly 70 percent.

“Science untangles the complexity of toxicology so we can make progress even in the face of uncertainty,” McCarthy said. “When EPA puts chemical toxicity and safety data online, manufacturers, retailers and consumers pay attention — change happens.”

McCarthy also cited U.S. successes in purifying drinking water, cleaning contaminated soil and keeping homes safe from radon and mold.

“Safeguarding health is our top priority at EPA,” McCarthy said. “As scientists and public health professionals, we have an obligation to speak up when sound science is unfairly criticized.

“The truth is: Science has supported regulations, policies and programs that have been good for public health, our planet, and our pocketbooks, for consumers and companies.”

From smoke-stack scrubbers to catalytic converters, the United States has a proven track record of pollution-control innovations, McCarthy said, asserting that U.S. environmental laws “recognize the need to cultivate that innovation.”

In 2014, the environmental risks the world faces are different from those at the first Earth Day in 1970, but the call to action is the same and the commitment to using science to answer that call must remain strong, she said.

“As we take action to reduce carbon pollution and make our communities more resilient in the face of a changing climate, let's keep speaking up for the leading role of science in America's continuing story of progress,” McCarthy said.