Perspective: On A Sweltering Planet, “Make America Healthy Again” Puts Children’s Health At Risk
- Lisa Patel and Grace Wickerson
- 6 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The Trump administration claims that its “Make America Healthy Again” strategy, commonly abbreviated to MAHA, will be the sweeping plan that reverses all the failed policies that have fueled the “childhood chronic disease epidemic.”
Research from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) shows that about 30% of young people are now living with chronic diseases that significantly affect their lives. The latest MAHA report claims that by focusing on the four primary drivers of disease — ultraprocessed foods, chemicals in the environment, digital technologies, and over-medicalization of society — they can stall or even reverse this increase of chronic illnesses in children.
But what they left out may be the greatest driver of ill health in a child born today: climate change. Climate hazards like poor air quality and extreme heat can hurt the physiology of growing children. Climate change is also increasing the incidence of vector-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and dengue fever, which can adversely affect young children who spend more time outdoors than adults do. Finally, extreme weather events also harm the emotional health of children, especially if they are exposed to more traumatic events at a young age without any support.
The Trump administration is constantly enacting policies that slow clean energy deployment and expand fossil fuel infrastructure. These policies will only make the problem much worse, and a big reason why we can’t ignore the driver of climate change as a root cause and threat multiplier of childhood chronic disease.
According to data compiled by UNICEF, more than 1 billion children globally are already at an extremely high risk from climate change and its related health impacts.
Today’s children will grow up breathing dirtier air and enduring harsher heat than their parents ever did. The science is unequivocal on this point: without major cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, today’s children will inherit a world where they face twice as many wildfires, three times as many floods, and 36 times as many heat waves as someone born in 1960.
More days when children face extreme heat will worsen their risk of developing diseases such as asthma and eczema. Wildfire smoke is estimated to be ten times as toxic as regular air pollution, and repeated exposures to it can increase the risk of heart and lung disease, as well as the risk of developing cancers.
In 2025, nearly a billion people worldwide were exposed to temperature extremes; some places experienced temperatures so extreme that they approached the thresholds of what humans can survive. Smoke from large wildfires in Canada, parts of Europe, and Siberia, places known for their cold weather, blanketed communities and reversed air quality improvements that we made over the previous decades.
At the same time, vectors like mosquitoes and ticks are spreading, carrying highly dangerous and infectious diseases such as Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and dengue fever to more northern locations. Florida is now seeing incidences of several mosquito-borne diseases, which were previously highly uncommon in the state. Mosquito-borne diseases like chikungunya are now also being found in New York, where they had never been seen before. Since children spend more time outdoors than adults, they have a higher risk of acquiring such diseases.
Extreme weather events are also driving up the costs of daily life, such as energy bills and groceries, straining the budgets of vulnerable families. This is because, as the weather becomes more variable, our energy needs increase, and the resilience of our systems, especially of our agricultural systems, decreases.
When wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and floods get more destructive, they not only exacerbate these economic impacts but also cause severe disruption and trauma in children’s lives, as children lose housing, caregivers, and community. They impact the quality of life for children, their education, and their potential for future success by disrupting their access to health care and prolonging their school absences.
For example, a survey of 15,000 young people in the United States found that 85% are worried about climate change’s impacts. 43% said that their worry is having an impact on their mental health. Youth who have experienced climate-fueled disasters are also more likely to express feelings of hopelessness and distress in daily life.
All of these factors combined also make it harder for kids to learn and grow. Studies have found that a rise in average annual temperature by 1°F results in a 1% decline in learning for kids. Schools that are crumbling and unadapted experience higher exposures to extreme heat and PM2.5, leading to neuropsychological effects such as attention deficit disorder, impaired school performance, and decreased memory. If we continue not to take action on climate change and its impacts, these learning losses could translate into billions in annual future income losses for these children.
One of the authors of the MAHA report is Lee Zeldin, current administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In a press release about the report, he said, “Protecting human health and the environment while powering America’s comeback isn’t just about serving Americans today; it’s about ensuring future generations inherit clean air, land, water, and the foundation for healthy lives.”
But the actions of the Trump administration are only making it easier for people to pollute our environment and create an unsafe future for the world’s children.
The Trump administration has routinely given major industries free passes to pollute by quickly dismantling pollution regulations that safeguard our air and water. They have slashed the federal government’s capacity to act on the health effects of extreme weather, disinvested in climate adaptation projects around the world, and terminated critical research studies on how climate change impacts children. These policies will lead to millions of tonnes of new planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, locking the world into air-polluting energy infrastructure, and making us more vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate.
Completely ignoring the interconnected threats posed by climate change-related impacts and environmental pollution is not just a scientific oversight; it is a public health failure. What’s disappointing is that the top federal official appointed to safeguard our health has systematically cut down funding for climate change and health programs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, was previously an environmental lawyer and spent decades protecting the environment from pollution, pushing back against the interests of the coal industry and the oil and gas industry. Now, he chooses not to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the ways they are threatening the health of children on this planet.
We choose a different path: one where children inherit a thriving planet and resilient communities. As the U.S. federal government retreats from creating climate-aware public health infrastructure, others are stepping up and working together at the local and state levels to drive the clean energy transition.
In California, a broad coalition created a framework for climate-resilient schools, asking for solar panels on school rooftops and electric school buses, and introduced legislation to implement it. In Hawaii, youth plaintiffs organized to sue their state over the polluting public transportation system and won a groundbreaking settlement, where the state committed to reaching net negative emissions by 2045.
Children can’t have longer, happier, and healthier lives on a sweltering planet. We owe quick and comprehensive climate action to them and their futures.
