Summer without a safety net

The Climate, Health & Equity Brief is GMMB’s take on the latest news on the current impacts of climate change. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so by clicking here.

Hot Topic: ‘Tis the season. It’s June, which means kids are out for summer, grills are firing up, and we’ve officially entered the season of brutal heat and powerful storms.

And this summer is set to be a scorcher. NOAA has issued a severe heat alert, indicating that summer 2025 could be one of the most dangerous in decades. Despite this, the Trump administration abruptly defunded NOAA’s Center for Heat-Resilient Communities, a program to help U.S. cities combat extreme heat.

And while Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data show that heat has killed 137 American workers since 2017 and hospitalized thousands more, the Administration has fired the team of scientists studying how extreme heat affects workers’ health. That team had helped create new safety rules to protect workers from the dangers of heat on the job, which the oil giants are now lobbying the Administration to scrap. Apparently, ensuring that workers get water, breaks, and shade at temperatures above 80°F poses a threat to “energy dominance.”

Globally, the picture is no less stark. A new report finds that climate change added an extra month of extreme heat for nearly 4 billion people last year, disproportionately affecting developing nations and vulnerable populations. Another new study links higher temperatures to increased cancer rates among women under 50 in the Middle East and North Africa, which researchers attribute to increased exposure to UV radiation and air pollutants intensified by climate change.

On the hurricane front, NOAA predicts that this year’s season will be more active than last, with up to 19 named storms and as many as five major hurricanes—surpassing 2024’s destructive season, which caused over $34 billion in damage. Yet, as storm activity increases, Americans face growing uncertainty about what federal help, if any, they can count on in the event of a disaster. Mr. Trump has drastically reshaped FEMA by cutting budgets, slashing staff, ending key preparedness programs, and shifting disaster response responsibilities to states, sparking widespread concern about U.S. readiness for inevitable climate crises.

This week, multiple sources confirmed that Mr. Trump’s pick to lead FEMA, David Richardson, remarked on a call with staff that he was unaware the United States even has a hurricane season. To that, we say, perhaps ignorance is bliss—but it’s not a disaster plan.

Human Health

New research suggests that extreme heat is increasing women’s risk of cancer, especially in developing Middle Eastern and African countries where temperatures and toxins are more extreme. (Fortune, The Washington Post)

As extreme heat intensifies worldwide, a new study finds that most public health plans dangerously overlook its growing toll on mental health despite rising evidence linking heat waves to increased suicide risk, psychiatric hospitalizations, and cognitive decline. (Scientific American)

Scientists warn that climate change is making the UK increasingly vulnerable to mosquito-borne tropical diseases like West Nile virus as rising heat and global aid cuts threaten to erode disease surveillance and control and raise the risk of local outbreaks. (The Guardian)

At least 151 people are dead after catastrophic flooding swept through Mokwa, Nigeria, where extreme weather overwhelmed communities already grappling with prolonged drought, torrential rainfall and inadequate flood-control infrastructure. (NBC News)

Planetary Health

Earth is now on track to breach the critical 1.5°C warming threshold within the next two years, according to a new UN report, marking the likely failure of the Paris climate goal and ushering in a new era of irreversible climate risks and global uncertainty. (The Washington Post)

A new global report finds that human-driven climate change added an extra month of extreme heat for nearly 4 billion people last year, with the worst impacts falling on developing countries and vulnerable populations. (Al Jazeera)

A new study finds that nearly 40% of global glacier loss is now inevitable—even if global warming were to stop today—and that if temperatures rise beyond the 1.5°C threshold, up to 76% of the world’s glaciers could disappear. (The New York Times & CNN)

As hurricane season begins, officials warn that the Administration’s staffing cuts at NOAA and efforts to shrink FEMA are weakening disaster response and leaving communities dangerously unprepared. (E&E News)

An intense marine heatwave near Florida is driving ocean temperatures as high as 98°F, fueling record-breaking heat, humidity, and dangerous storms and triggering widespread coral bleaching alerts across the region. (The Washington Post)

Equity

In Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” community groups are suing to overturn a law that bans using low-cost air pollution data to push for stricter enforcement, arguing the law’s requirement for $60,000 EPA-grade equipment silences vulnerable communities and protects industry. (The New York Times)

A German court has rejected a landmark climate lawsuit by a Peruvian farmer who sought damages from energy giant RWE for the glacial flood risk to his home due to their emissions, though the case has set a precedent by affirming that foreign climate claims against German companies can be heard under German law. (NPR)

For the Bokonzo people, the rapidly melting glaciers in Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains represent living beings central to their spirituality that will be lost by 2050, no matter how quickly global emissions are reduced. (Atmos)

Politics & Economy

Administration Watch:

• Internal documents reveal the EPA plans to repeal greenhouse gas limits on U.S. power plants, arguing their emissions don’t significantly impact climate change. (The New York Times)
• The Administration has fired the federal team of experts behind worker heat protections as deadly heat intensifies. (E&E News)
• The Trump administration has defunded NOAA’s Center for Heat Resilient Communities, halting plans to help vulnerable communities nationwide prepare for intensifying urban heat. (Grist)
• The Administration has shut down more than 100 federally funded climate studies, sparking fears of lasting damage to U.S. climate science. (MIT Technology Review)
• The Administration has proposed slashing NASA’s budget by $6 billion in what experts call an “extinction-level event” for U.S. climate science from space. (E&E News)
• The Administration canceled $3.7 billion in Biden-era clean energy grants aimed at advancing major initiatives, including carbon capture and industrial decarbonization. (The Washington Post)
• Overriding state plans for closure, Mr. Trump is forcing an aging, dirty Michigan coal plant to remain open, a move expected to drive up utility bills by tens of millions of dollars. (The Washington Post)
• Mr. Trump is reversing federal protections for 23 million acres of Alaskan wilderness to accelerate U.S. drilling and mining, imperiling wildlife and Indigenous.

According to multiple sources, FEMA staff were shocked this week after Trump-appointed agency head David Richardson said he was unaware the U.S. has a hurricane season—an offhand remark that deepened concerns about the agency’s readiness just as a busy storm season begins. (Reuters)

An AP analysis finds that the EPA’s proposed rollback of pollution rules could reverse decades of cleaner air progress, cause tens of thousands of premature deaths, and cost the U.S. $275 billion in annual health and environmental benefits. (AP News)

The President of COP30 warns that a rising wave of economic climate denial—claims that climate action is either too costly or bad for the economy—is now a major threat to global climate progress. (The Guardian)

In a win for industry, the Supreme Court narrowed federal environmental review powers under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), sending a Utah oil rail case back to a lower court and potentially easing the path for fossil fuel projects. (The Washington Post)

Oil giants are pressuring the Trump administration to kill proposed heat protections for workers despite an increase in heat-related deaths in their own industry, arguing that rest and water breaks for workers threaten the push for “energy dominance.” (E&E News)

Climate startups are pausing operations, reducing staff, and even filing for bankruptcy due to changes in U.S. energy policy. (The Wall Street Journal)

Action

While China remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, its emissions dropped slightly for the first time due to the country’s aggressive rollout of clean energy. (Vox)

Although Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, the EU is nearly on track to reach its main climate target for 2030, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 54% — just shy of its goal of a 55% cut. (Reuters)

Climate scientists and meteorologists shared their work and its vital impact during a 100-hour livestream in protest of the Administration’s gutting of the country’s climate and weather research. (The New York Times)

As the Trump administration dismantles climate policy, U.S. mayors are taking on climate action by expanding green spaces, electrifying buildings, deploying heat pumps, and linking climate action to job creation, cost savings, and public health. (Mother Jones)

Life as We Know It

Trump’s cuts to federal jobs, research funding, and DEI programs have dismantled career pathways in climate science, sustainability, public service, and research, forcing recent graduates to reevaluate their futures in a world where climate change, for the time being, is not a U.S. priority. (The Hechinger Report)

Kicker

Wondering what summer has in store for your state? Check out these maps to see where heat, humidity, drought and rainfall will be outside the norm.

“If you don’t know what or when hurricane season is, you’re not qualified to run FEMA.”

– U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson

The GMMB Climate, Health & Equity Brief would not be possible without the contributions of the larger GMMB team—Catherine Ahmad, Stefana Hendronetto, Nikki Melamed, Sharde Olabanji, Kenzie Perrow and Marci Welford. Feedback on the Brief is welcome and encouraged and should be sent to [email protected].