This Earth Day arrives at a sobering moment as the EPA continues to erase the safeguards it was created to uphold.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970, following the first Earth Day, expressly to protect human health and the environment. But, since President Donald Trump’s second term began, rapid-fire policy shifts have pivoted the agency away from public health.
Since January of 2025, the agency has lost thousands of scientists and experts, cemented by budget cuts that cripple research and enforcement. The EPA effectively shuttered its environmental justice programs, abandoning the marginalized communities the programs were designed to protect.
Human Rights Watch has documented how extreme pollution from fossil fuel operations is linked to elevated health harms. In a Louisiana region known as Cancer Alley, residents face higher rates of cancer, respiratory ailments, and severe maternal, reproductive, and newborn health complications. These harms are disproportionately borne by the area’s Black residents.
Source: Human Rights Watch