Miami, FL — The CLEO Institute today issued a strong condemnation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s repeal of the Endangerment Finding, a cornerstone scientific determination affirming that climate pollution threatens public health and welfare.

The science has not changed. The danger has not disappeared. Only the protection we once had.

The decision disregards decades of rigorous, peer-reviewed research and the lived reality of communities already experiencing the health impacts of a warming world. Rising temperatures, worsening air quality, stronger storms, expanding infectious disease risks, and intensifying heat exposure are well-documented consequences of climate pollution, each posing clear and growing dangers to human health.

“Extreme heat and weather events are not an abstract concept in Florida,” said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, CEO of The CLEO Institute. “Seniors and children struggle to breathe. Asthma worsens with polluted air. Outdoor workers face dangerous conditions every day. The endangerment finding recognizes these harms. Repealing it ignores that reality and leaves people more exposed to harm.”

By abandoning the Endangerment Finding, the EPA turns its back on overwhelming scientific consensus and undermines the agency’s fundamental responsibility to protect people from preventable harm.

Public health experts, medical professionals, and climate scientists have repeatedly affirmed that greenhouse gas pollution harms human health. It worsens respiratory illness. It increases heat-related deaths and threatens food and water security. These burdens fall hardest on children, older adults, and frontline communities.

“If the EPA walks away from science, we will be the ones paying higher prices. Because for us, climate change is not a theory, it is already a monthly expense,” said Arditi-Rocha.

At a time when climate-driven disasters are intensifying across the United States, weakening science-based safeguards places lives at risk and threatens progress toward cleaner air, safer communities, and a stable climate future.

The CLEO Institute calls on federal leaders to uphold science and protect public health. To ensure policies reflect the clear and mounting evidence that climate pollution exacerbates the affordability crisis and endangers people today and for generations to come.