Alonzo Plough , 2025-05-05 08:30:00
Extreme weather is now a common part of American life — and the associated health risks are impossible to ignore. During heat waves, babies are more likely to be born prematurely or at a lower birth weight. Wildfire smoke can worsen asthma and lung disease. Air pollution and heat exacerbate the effects of heart, lung, and kidney disease. The list is endless and devastating.
Rather than protecting families and communities from these harms, however, the Trump administration has sent a far different message to the American people: You’re on your own.
The administration is burying weather science, ending climate research, and making it far more difficult for families and communities to prepare for and respond to extreme weather events. As a 25-year veteran of three public health departments, and now the chief science officer of a large health philanthropy, I find these actions to be baffling, reckless, and dangerous. Instead of abandoning communities and leaving states and localities to fend for themselves, the administration must safeguard people’s health from today’s increasingly volatile weather.
Despite the absence of federal leadership, state and local officials across the country are working tirelessly to make their communities resilient and healthy in the face of our changing climate. Thirteen states are decarbonizing public works projects and manufacturing. In Washington, state officials are supporting local tribes’ efforts to restore local water habitats. And across the Southeast, state officials are bolstering early-warning systems for residents who face the greatest risk of flooding and extreme heat.
When I directed emergency preparedness and response for Los Angeles County, we used weather data to predict excess heat days, and had cooling centers up and running when those days arrived. If a wildfire was imminent, we sent out alerts in dozens of languages to ensure our 10 million residents could plan accordingly. And when damage inevitably occurred from a fire or storm, we helped families rebuild their lives, homes, and businesses.
That’s the kind of playbook that state and local health officials follow. Instead of following their lead, however, the administration has cast them aside.
The administration is planning to shutter the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather and climate lab. It has fired hundreds of meteorologists and weather scientists and stopped federal research on climate change and extreme weather. FEMA was forced to lay off hundreds of staff and ordered to end a landmark program that helped communities prepare for floods, fires and other climate-fueled events. The administration shut down the Office of Climate and Health Equity, which studied how climate change affects different people and communities, and clawed back more than $11 billion from state and local health departments, which are so often on the frontlines of disaster response.
The administration even decided to block the National Weather Service from translating weather alerts. More than 67 million people in America speak a language other than English at home. Translated weather alerts save lives. But what good is an alert if people can’t understand it? This decision serves only to target people who aren’t fluent in English. It’s unconscionable.
All of this is happening as extreme weather due to climate change becomes increasingly common. Between 1980 and 2024, the United States averaged nine extreme weather events annually that exceeded $1 billion in damages. But between 2020 and 2024, the United States averaged 23 such events, including 27 last year. Already in 2025, major wildfires in Los Angeles destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, and historic rain and flooding ravaged multiple southern and midwestern states.
Climate change spares no one, but some communities fare far worse than others. At the highest risk are people with low incomes, no health insurance, few transportation options, and lack of access to nutritious food or safe and affordable housing. These inequities are often driven by structural racism affecting Black and Brown neighborhoods in particular. When economic inequality and proximity to environmental hazards meet, the impacts can be disastrous.
Policymakers at all levels have an obligation to protect peoples’ lives, health, and property. With climate change supercharging the threat of extreme weather, that responsibility has never been greater.
State and local leaders across the country are charting a path toward a more resilient and healthy future. I am confident that they will continue to do all they can to protect the people they represent from the worst impacts of extreme weather — but they cannot accomplish all that’s needed alone. Federal leaders ought to do the same, and I urge the administration to begin that work right now. Our lives and health depend on it.
Alonzo Plough, Ph.D., M.P.H., is vice president for research-evaluation-learning and chief science officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He previously served as director of public health for Boston, Seattle, and King County, Washington, and director of emergency preparedness and response for Los Angeles County.