By Almeta Cooper
Nothing brings me more joy than spending time with my beautiful five-month-old grandson. When I am with him, we are in our own special world – the board books, the stuffies, the smiles. I certainly don’t want him to see the dread I am feeling. I work in the climate sector and I know what scary monsters lay ahead for him, especially because of this administration and the current Environmental Protection Agency.
Indeed, when the EPA forsakes its duty to safeguard public health under the Clean Air Act, it is Black, Brown and under-resourced communities that are harmed disproportionately!
I know first-hand, as an African American, how much worse climate change and global warming is for Black communities. I have been filled with deep concern since I first heard rumors that the EPA would recklessly abandon its duty to protect our public health and welfare by revoking the Endangerment Finding, a foundational part of the EPA’s ability to regulate climate pollution. This week, those rumors became reality and this spells disaster for my community, for my grandson, and for all Black children and grandchildren.
The Endangerment Finding was issued by the EPA in 2009 after the U. S. Supreme Court determined that the EPA had the authority to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases. “Endangerment Finding” is not an everyday term that rolls easily off the tongue. What matters, though, are not just the words. Rather, what matters is that the EPA is ignoring well-documented scientific evidence clearly showing that the rise in global temperatures and related climate and environmental changes have resulted from a significant increase in greenhouse gases. What matters also is that the harms of the EPA’s irresponsible new decision will harm children’s health, especially those in Black, Brown and under-served communities, and increase their rates of asthma, heat stroke, cardiovascular disease and other chronic and debilitating illnesses.
In fact, the World Health Organization has alerted us that while we will all be harmed by increased climate pollution, it is the health of our precious children and grandchildren, as well as pregnant women, those 65 years old or more and those living in under-resourced neighborhoods that will feel the impact first and most severely.
Ultimately, increased air pollution – like the kind made worse by climate pollution — will also mean increased healthcare visits and costs for families who are already facing less access to healthcare in 2026 for numerous reasons, including the large increase in both insurance rates and the uninsured.. Black, Brown and under-resourced communities are among those in this group. They are me, they are friends of mine, they are family members, they are neighbors.
Because of complex reasons relating to environmental racism, Black and Brown children often live in under-resourced communities that are already facing numerous environmental threats in addition to intensifying climate risks. These neighborhoods and the schools they attend are close to highways, industrial sites and power plants, exposing them to worse air pollution and other environmental hazards.
In February 2026, researchers reported that, “Black Americans, in particular, are more likely than any other group to live in areas with unhealthy air, increasing illness risk.” In the same report, the researchers wrote the cruel fact that, “By removing lifesaving environmental protections and failing to limit harmful chemicals and toxic pollution emitted by gas and coal power plants, oil and gas refineries, petrochemical, chemical and pesticide manufacturers, and other industries, the administration is letting corporate polluters poison the air that kids and families breathe and the water they drink.”
That is not making America Healthy Again, it is making us all sick!
For years I worked to bring electric school buses to Georgia because I saw how many children, a significant number of whom were Black and Brown, struggled with asthma due to fossil fuel fumes. We simply cannot ignore that air pollution and climate pollution are a threat to children’s health. There is a direct relationship between worsening pollution and certain diseases such as asthma, which the EPA identifies as a leading chronic disease among children, and which affects Black children more than any other group. The EPA itself has also reported that a Black child is more likely to die because of asthma.
Despite the tsunami of EPA senseless rollbacks, and particularly the Endangerment Finding, every time I hold my grandson, my resolve is strengthened to protect clean air for him to breathe, clean water for him to drink and for him to have a healthy neighborhood to grow up in. This is my sacred legacy for my grandson and for all the other grandsons in the world who need us to protect them. So, we must fight back – by making our voices heard and our actions felt. Their future hangs in the balance.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.