Climate Conversation: Is carbon pollution?

It goes without saying that the earth is changing. A whole new language has entered the general population’s everyday vocabulary to describe the changes that are happening – super storms, heat domes, fire tornadoes, atmospheric rivers, bomb cyclones. The oceans are hotter and more acidic, there are more droughts, higher temperatures, less snowpack, and more and heavier rain.

Scientists tell us these events are a result of greenhouse gasses being trapped in the atmosphere that surrounds earth. These gasses reflect the sun’s rays back to earth and warm the planet. Today most of the greenhouse gasses (CO2, methane, and others) released to the atmosphere are a result of burning fossil fuels.

The Clean Air Act passed by Congress in 1963 created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has the power to create regulations aimed to improve air quality. A number of amendments and findings followed, including the Endangerment Finding in 2009 which established that greenhouse gasses can threaten the health and well-being of people. This is the legal framework that allows the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

There has been a lot of media hype about the reality of climate change. But within the scientific community there has always been a consensus that climate change is real and most of it human caused. 

Several years ago, one of the late-night comedy shows illustrated the consensus by having 100 scientists come on the show. 97 of them agreed that climate change was real and three were climate deniers. More recently a Cornell study found that the consensus is even higher with 99.9 percent of peer reviewed science articles concluding that climate change is real and that humans are the primary cause.

The EPA determined ways to reduce emissions—fuel standards for vehicles, the introduction of solar and wind as ways to create energy without fossil fuels, and subsidizing the purchase of electric vehicles. Many states took actions as well. In Washington state, the Department of Ecology sells carbon credits and the revenue from the sales funds the Climate Commitment Act twitch in turn funds state programs to reduce CO2 emissions.

The current Federal administration is proposing to remove all language connecting greenhouse gases to global warming. The administration is saying that the science and legal ideas behind the Endangerment Finding are wrong. 

The rescission of the Endangerment Finding means that regulating GHG’s is no longer required and data will no longer be collected on GHG emissions from motor vehicles and engines. These data are used to benchmark decarbonization, they provide sources for tax credits and funded efforts through the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce carbon.

Many states including the Attorney General of Washington Nick Brown are challenging the current federal administration’s rescission of the Endangerment Finding.

Join us for the LFP Climate Hub’s April 18, 2026 Climate Conversation for a lively discussion of the implications of the rescission with local science and policy experts.

10am at The LFP Climate Hub: Third Place Commons, 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park

--Sarah Phillips