Microposts

Introduction

We start with an Introduction and then shift to posting Microposts. The most recent Micropost is directly below the Introduction.

This platform is dedicated to building a research and teaching resource that investigates the complex dilemmas posed by air pollution and its profound impacts on human health and global climate. For instance, recent research by Giampiccolo et al. (2024) in Environment International highlights a compelling injury: increased breast cancer risk linked to exposure to multiple air pollutants like NO2, PM2.5, PM10, and PCB153 (DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.108943). Such findings underscore the scientific uncertainty surrounding the long-term safety of these pervasive environmental contaminants. We propose harnessing this critical data as a foundational knowledge base for an epistemic community of high school students and teaching staff, empowering them to collaboratively develop strategies for pollution avoidance. This strategy-building process intrinsically supports hands-on learning across Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, transforming complex environmental challenges into tangible educational opportunities. By applying the principles of modern science - from discerning biochemical pathways in biology, to analyzing chemical reactions in air, and measuring physical properties of particles - this collective will forge actionable knowledge, embodying how scientific inquiry lights the path toward a healthier, more sustainable future. We have a WorkShop on this proposal, it is available here, https://zenodo.org/records/16049080.

Beyond these direct health impacts, our investigations extend to Global Warming, an existential crisis demanding urgent action. Alarm bells ring clearly, as documented by the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service staff: ‘The global-average temperature for the 12 months (November 2023 - October 2024) was 0.74°C above the 1991-2020 average, and an estimated 1.62°C above the 1850 - 1900 pre-industrial average.’ Such escalating temperatures highlight the profound urgency of addressing human impact on Earth’s systems.

To foster this vital knowledge archive, we operate through dedicated hosting sites including EnvironmentalJusticeMatters.org (EJM) and UnThinkableIdeas.org. Our brand is built around a singular core issue: the inherent danger posed by air pollution exposure- a danger to Public Health, the well-being of Flora and Fauna, and the stability of the Climate itself. We formalized our commitment by trademarking ‘Climate Protection Fund’ and establishing it as a NYS not-for-profit corporation, Climate Protection Fund Inc. (Federal Unique Entity ID: YKQUK1UC1JQ3). We have also secured the domains CPFund.info and ClimateProtectionFund.eu. Previously, the development of these domains was restricted pending a future NSF Proposal; however, with the recent shifts in the 2025 political landscape, notably the ‘radical shake-up’ at NSF (Science, AAAS, 20250508: https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-nsf-faces-radical-shake-officials-abolish-its-37-divisions), we recognize the imperative to build and expand our presence now. Our choice of the ‘.eu’ domain reflects the European Union’s Precautionary Principle, a foundational concept for our interventions: prevention of injury. We encourage consideration of this principle (http://bit.ly/PrecautionaryP) in conjunction with critical health trends, such as the rising incidence of Breast Cancer. Our overarching focus is on developing preventive strategies for protecting health, driving our investigations and promoting discussions on avoiding pollution exposure.

Environmental Justice Matters (EJM) stands as a key project of the Climate Protection Fund Inc. Our inaugural public engagement is the Environmental Justice Matters Workshop, part of the ReImagining Education Conference hosted by The Gordon Institute for Advanced Study at Teachers College, Columbia University, on July 15, 2025. A drafting document for this Workshop is available via DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15064471. For this edition, the Workshop will explore Pollution in our neighborhoods, specifically by collecting Narrative Interviews on encounters with Pollution and Health Disparities.

Author: K Moses

Collaborative: S Fischer, S Holloman, K Moses

20250818: Thinking About The Plastics,

First, we face a Climate Crisis, and the dangers are exacerbated by Air Pollution from the use of fossil fuels, Such as Oil. The efforts to address this calamity include The Geneva Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC) negotiations, which ran from the 5th to the 15th of August 2025, under the auspices of the UN Environment Programme. See, https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/resumed-fifth-session-negotiations-global-plastic-pollution-treaty. The negotiations did not produce a Treaty on global plastics pollution after President Trump’s USA opted to join the PetroStates to block action. The not-happening goal was to create what is known as the Global Plastics Treaty. The meeting was a numbered session, “INC-5.2”. My suspicion was that Petrochemical Lobbyists would pitch against any curtailing of plastic production. Groups like the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) have tracked the presence of Petrochemical Lobbyists. See the CIEL excellent publication site at https://www.ciel.org/research-publications/. See, “Preparatory Materials for the Resumed Fifth Session of the Plastics Treaty Negotiations (INC-5.2)”. For previous INC sessions, CIEL analysis revealed that lobbyists representing the fossil fuel and chemical industries were officially registered to attend. In some cases, the lobbyist contingent for these industries outnumbered the official delegations of entire groups of nations. Is it an occupation of the negotiating space, scuppering any planning for ? e.g., recycling, a rational analysis is yes, it is. Again, a response comes to mind: Why can’t the like-minded majority conclude a Treaty and progress without the Saudis ++ and President Trump’s USA? The way forward is not waiting for President Trump’s USA to join the future paths. The way forward is the formation of a Treaty on global plastic pollution, but for it to be effective, requires the participation of the World’s largest producers and consumers. A Treaty without the USA and major oil-producing nations risks being toothless, creating a parallel system where polluters can continue to operate with impunity, undermining the efforts of the willing majority. The failure in Geneva was not a simple diplomatic impasse; it was a calculated political victory for a fossil fuel industry that sees plastic as its essential ‘Plan B’ in an era of Energy Transition. This context explains the Lobbyist presence and their refusal to accept anything but voluntary measures.

  • “[] the majority of more than 170 countries were prepared to compromise to secure a [*Treaty*] in Geneva on Friday [the 15th], the [USA] refused to agree to anything beyond voluntary measures, national delegates told the Financial Times.” See, “UN plastics treaty talks fail after US joins PetroStates in blocking action” by Madeleine Speed, 15th August 2025, https://on.ft.com/419472e.

The way to the future is a path without President Trump’s USA, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, … If they should opt to join later in the journey, wonderful. Is this path more nourishing for ideas on redesigning the uses of Oil for the creation of recyclable and degradable plastics?

  • I took the diagram below from blueringmedia via Getty Images.
  • The Distillation of Oil includes yields of Petrol and Naphtha. Naphtha contains many hydrocarbons, including Ethane and Propene. These compounds contribute to the formation of commonly produced plastics known on Earth. The future is ReDesign using Renewable Energy, ending Petrol production, and recycling Plastic. The recycling process has to include designing biodegradable plastics and reducing/ending the addition of PFAS. One of the ways forward is designing plastic from polymers that can be broken down efficiently by microbes in water and soil. It is a beautiful way forward, creating new learning and design spaces. It is further a direct threat to the business model of the petrochemical giants who profit from virgin plastic production. Achieving this future will require more than just technical innovation; it demands a political struggle to create the conditions - through binding regulation and public investment - where a circular, non-toxic economy can triumph over the linear, toxic model of the fossil fuel age.

  • Plastic Pollution has to end. The below picture by Pius Utomi Ekpei is of a plastic polluted canal in Lagos, Nigeria, Summer 2024 (AFP, Getty Images). The shown abundant Plastics can degrade due to movement and solar radiation releasing PFAS to the water and can function as a sponge carrying PFAS to the water. Further, the degradation can result in the release of nanoplastics and microplastices. A future micropost will be on potential human health outcomes for intake of PFAS. See, Menegatto and Zamperini, 2024. “Contamination of Perfluoroalkyl Substances and Environmental Fight for [Safety] and Health: The MammeNoPfas Movement as Epistemic Community.” Soc. Sci., vol. 13, no. 10, 27 p. 509, see bottom of p. 523 - top of p. 524. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13100509. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/10/509 And the intake of nanoplastics and microplastics, see Nihart et al, 2025. ‘Bioaccumulation of Microplastics in Decedent Human Brains’. Nature Medicine, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 1114 - 19. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03453-1.

Author: K Moses

Author’s Note on Process: The framework for this post was developed iteratively. The initial thesis was refined and grounded in evidence through a critical dialogue with Google’s Gemini Pro 2.5, which served as a research assistant and a sparring partner for the political analysis.

Collaborative: S Fischer, S Holloman, K Moses

Tags: Oil, FossilFuels, Plastic, PFAS, AirPollution, Pollution, Recycling, HumanHealth,

20250802: More Than Carbon, How Gutting the EPA’s Climate Rule Unleashes a Chemical Threat. … under-Construction, will be updated,

  • On the 29th of July 2025, the Trump Admin’s EPA disclosed the beginning of a revocation of a key scientific finding, called the Endangerment Finding. The Endangerment Finding analysis was published in 2009; it functions as a core threshold, a prerequisite for regulating six Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from cars and car engines, and has been interpreted as applying to airplanes. The Finding identifies six GHG emissions as posing a danger to Public Health because they cause Global Warming. Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act discloses the “mix of six long-lived and directly-emitted greenhouse gases[:] carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)”. See, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2009-12-15/pdf/E9-29537.pdf. Buried in the 2009 Finding, among the familiar greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane, is a name that should instigate attempts to reduce exposure and do detective work: perfluorocarbons (PFCs) - the original forever chemicals. This listing took my thoughts to the Public Health dangers presented by PFCs and PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances), which are essentially the same thing. PFAS being the current term for this group of synthetic chemicals. PFAS exposure can lead to a range of health injuries, including Liver Damage, Thyroid Disease, Obesity, Fertility Problems, and an increased risk of certain cancers, particularly Kidney and Testicular Cancer. Please see the excellent notes at https://dceg.cancer.gov/research/what-we-study/pfas. I was a little worried the notes would be lost, so I created a copy here, https://share.evernote.com/note/2faa3fc1-652e-4d55-a7fe-6ae49fe175ca. Some recent studies are suggesting potential impacts on Immune System development and neuro-development, which makes mother - fetus transmission the current and next health crisis.

  • The ideological project that seeks to deny Climate Science to benefit Fossil Fuel producers and users is the exact same project that obscures Science to benefit chemical manufacturers. The Endangerment Finding revocation is not just one deregulation act; it is the dismantling of the state’s capacity to act on scientific evidence of harm, whatever its source.

  • There is an illustration for the hollowing out of Science on now: the firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, see “Trump, Claiming Weak Jobs Numbers Were ‘Rigged,’ Fires Labor Official” by Casselman and Romm. Aug. 1, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/business/economy/trump-bls-firing-jobs-report.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bE8.FVzT.RZ6ELQB5ig1Y&smid=nytcore-android-share … When the data tells the story you do not want fire the data producer. My take is Labor Statistics is the gold standard because they are wonderful statistical thinkers which is an initiation step for good Science. Last night a friend of mine mentioned she was most concerned by the arrival of chaos and destruction. I think she has got it right. I argued the firing of Dr. McEntarfer is a marker for authoritarianism and corruption making the decisions.

  • Absent the Endangerment Finding, the EPA will lack the statutory authority under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to prohibit the processes producing the GHG emissions. See, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2009-12-15/pdf/E9-29537.pdf. And see https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/proposed-rule-reconsideration-2009-endangerment-finding#:~:text=The%20Endangerment%20Finding%20is%20a,prescribe%20standards%20for%20GHG%20emissions, this link takes you to language going to removal of regulating GHG emissions from cars and car engines, light-, medium-, and heavy-duty on-highway vehicles. The EPA 2025 argues that the 2009 Endangerment Finding is the wrong construction of the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), which the EPA 2025 now proposes does not require a finding that GHGs are subject to regulation under 202(a). EPA 2025 asserts that to be consistent with the holding in Massachusetts, regardless of whether individual GHGs are air pollutants under the broad, CAA - wide definition, any regulation must meet the CAA statutory standard for regulations under 202(a) because they `cause’ or `contribute’ to Air Pollution that endangers Public Health. My index for endangers Public Health aligns with the EU’s proactive Precautionary Principle (http://bit.ly/PrecautionaryP), which prioritizes public safety in the face of scientific uncertainty. The dominant USA system, however, serves a different master. By demanding a near-impossible standard of proof - a complete `causation story’ - it systematically benefits polluters, delays action, and forces communities to bear the burden of harm long before the slow wheels of regulation or justice are willing to act. I(KM) can conclude that an example Event X endangers Public Health with suggestive but UnCertain Evidence of the danger to Health presented by Event X.

  • Above, I am citing the health dangers presented by PFAS, see Menegatto and Zamperini, 2024. “Contamination of Perfluoroalkyl Substances [(PFAS)] and [the] Environmental Fight for [Safety] and Health: The MammeNoPfas Movement as Epistemic Community.” Soc. Sci., vol. 13, no. 10, p. 509, https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/10/509. And see, Ohayon et al., 2023 “Persistent Chemicals, Persistent Activism: Scientific Opportunity Structures and Social Movement Organizing on Contamination by per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances” (PFAS). Social Movement Studies, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1 - 23. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2178403. A way forward is community action with the formation of Epistemic Communities using these two papers as allies in the building process. The USA-based motivations to remove the availability of the Endangerment Finding poses a risk to human health and increases the profits for the producers adding PFAS to the Environment.

  • My take is that the 29th of July was a destructive day for the EPA, Climate, Environment, Public Health and Science. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin cast the scene differently on the Ruthless Podcast. Administrator Zeldin calls the revocation `the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.’ See the Ruthless Podcast video clip via Fox Business, https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6376297145112. The same day the EPA issued a press release saying if the draft to revoke the Finding is finalized, it will `repeal all resulting greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines, thereby reinstating consumer choice and giving Americans the ability to purchase a safe and affordable car for their family while decreasing the cost of living on all products that trucks deliver.’ See the cross reporting of the EPA language via Just Auto, https://www.just-auto.com/news/us-epa-proposes-axing-greenhouse-gas-rules-that-apply-to-motor-vehicles/. At present, my research has not pulled up an EPA document. This is a scene far away from what I have composed. Are there paths to reach Administrator Zeldin’s outcomes and protection of Climate, Environment, Public Health and Science? Sure is, a fundamental shift to Renewable Energy. That fundamental shift is ongoing, the resisters are busy producing the consequences of PFAS contamination, e.g., the Sacrifice Zones, poisoning the land, water and human bodies of disproportionately Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities from the Asthma Hospitalizations, Mott Haven, South Bronx to the industrial corridor of Louisiana’s `Cancer Alley’.

For me (KM), the Endangerment Finding has resonance with the EU Precautionary Principle’s prevention of injury. I think it is in the space of taking avoidance actions based on Suggestive and unCertain Evidence of danger to Health. The fight for the Endangerment Finding and the fight of communities against PFAS contamination are two fronts in the same war against a system that places corporate profit above the sanctity of the Environment and the Human body. A way forward is the formation of Epistemic Communities. Here is a statement provided to the study conducted by Menegatto and Zamperini 2024, p. 16 of 25 (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/10/509) that describes the formation: `I believe we have become great experts in PFAS. We address topics ranging from contaminated food to limits on water, from the development of the contaminated Miteni site to the European Drinking Water Directive, and the consequences for human health. I could take an exam on the subject tomorrow without any problem!’ (M.16)

Author: K Moses

Editor: Gemini Pro 2.5: excellent back and forth on using the term Sacrifice Zones,

20250729: The Silencing of #Science is a Political Act,

The reality is easy to observe if you know where to look: the EPA’s independent research arm - the Office of Research and Development (ORD) - is being systematically hollowed out. Its capacity for independent inquiry, the core of its mission to protect our shared environment, is being starved of funds and politically captured.

This is not a bureaucratic shuffle. It is the deliberate silencing of our detectives. And now, we see the devastating purpose of this silence.

According to a recent report in The New York Times, a plan is being drafted within the EPA to dismantle the very foundation of climate action: the scientific finding that greenhouse gases pose a threat to the climate, a threat to human life. By erasing this bedrock science, the path is cleared for coal burning and other polluting activities to proceed without hindrance. See, ‘E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change’ … “According to two people familiar with the draft, it would eliminate the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse-gas emissions threaten human life by dangerously warming the planet.” by Lisa Friedman, 20250722, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/climate/epa-endangerment-finding-rescind.html?smid=nytcore-android-share.

This is the battle on the intellectual terrain made real. First, you sideline the scientific bodies like the ORD that produce and defend the evidence. Then, you attack the evidence itself. One of my responses is to build a Quiver. Item One is the EU Precautionary Principle, see http://bit.ly/PrecautionaryP.

We must ask the essential question: who benefits materially from this coordinated assault on reality? The answer is clear. This degradation of Environmental Science directly serves the profit motives of the fossil fuel, chemical manufacturing, and financial sectors who have fought regulation for decades. It is the fusion of an ideological war with a raw economic agenda.

As the West Antarctic Ice Sheet continues its melting, a reminder of the physical stakes, we must commit to defending the institutions and people who fight for empirical truth. Supporting the unions like AFGE that represent these besieged EPA employees is no longer just a labor issue - it is a front-line in the struggle for a habitable planet.

K Moses’ Note on Process and Collaboration:

This analysis was developed through a dialogic process with Google’s Gemini Pro 2.5, a large language model (LLM/AI). Moving beyond a simple query-and-response, the collaboration was structured to use the AI as a sparring raconteur and a tool for synthesis.

The process involved:

  • Providing an initial draft and a set of core concerns.
  • Instructing the AI to adopt the persona and analytical framework of Antonio Gramsci to critique the premise and suggest a more nuanced argument based on concepts of cultural hegemony and the “war of position.”
  • Collaboratively refining the text based on the AI’s synthesized feedback, integrating/rejecting its structural suggestions and conceptual framing.
  • The final text is a product of this synthesis: human-provided direction, passion, and final authorship fused with AI-generated analysis and structural refinement. The aim is to model a transparent and critical partnership between human intellect and artificial intelligence in service of Environmental Justice and Science.

Author: K Moses, Editor: Gemini

20250717: The Environmental Justice Matters Workshop, at ReImagining Education,

We published the Workshop here, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16049080, please check it out. It was presented at Reimagining Education, Summer Institute, The Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Advanced Study, Teachers College, Columbia University,

Collaborators: S Fischer, S Holloman, K Moses, Gemini, Attendees,

20250708: #TemperatureRise: The Heatwaves are arriving, reporting from North Africa, Southern Europe, Portugal reported 46.6C 20250703 (NASA GMAO),

I(KM) tried to find reporting for Algiers Province, Algeria, but so far I have come up with nothing to cross-report - will continue the search. The 46.6°C in Portugal is an Emergency; the reporting of high temperature hotspots, heatwaves, is to become a weekly report for the EJM microposts.

My (KM) reporting here is cross-reporting from NASA GMAO. “The GMAO is a participant in the second phase of the DYAMOND initiative. “The DYAMOND [initiative] is a framework for the intercomparison of an emerging class of atmospheric circulation models [] that [] through their resolution of the major modes of atmospheric heat transport, endeavor to represent the most important scales of the full three-dimensional fluid dynamics of the atmospheric circulation.” See the Interactive Globe Visualizations. “The three-dimensional fluid dynamics of atmospheric circulation involve the movement of air in all three spatial dimensions, driven by factors like uneven heating, [][Earth] rotation, and pressure differences, resulting in global wind patterns and weather systems.” We are seeing Land and Marine Heatwaves, they are hotspots of climate change and disruptions of Biodiversity and Ecosystems, see https://www.nature.com/articles/s44358-025-00058-5. The response must be an excellent uptick in Renewable Energy and the delivery of Renewable Energy. The opposite direction is being described by US President Trump’s Tax Bill, which is negatively aggressive to the USA green power industry. See The Whitehouse News.

tags: temprature temperaturerise activism GlobalWarming Renewables USA NASA

Author: K Moses

20250628: The Anti-Science Moves: Recasting ACIP (The Vaccine Advisory Panel)

Why do we assert that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his associates are not allies of Immunization Practices? The evidence is stark: in June 2025, RFK Jr. and his team dismissed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), replacing them with 8 new appointees. The full listing of new members is available here: https://x.com/SecKennedy/status/1932899858920120692. A review reveals a significant departure from long-standing expertise in vaccine research. For more commentary on this abrupt change, see insights from CIDRAP and the HHS press room.

In their inaugural meeting, this reconfigured ACIP immediately pushed for a comprehensive review of the entire childhood vaccination schedule, a re-evaluation of Hepatitis B vaccinations, and notably, walked back previous recommendations for flu vaccinations containing thimerosal. It is deeply concerning that some of these new appointees have publicly voiced skepticism about vaccinations and appear ill-equipped to navigate evidence-based analysis. This move, we contend, is undermining a scientific process; RFK Jr. is a skeptic challenging the gatekeepers he should not be HHS. He is a vital sideline voice. If the line drawing is wrong he is a voice to call it out. The gatekeepers don’t do that. Us too, are skeptics on the role of the gatekeepers.

A striking example of this shift away from evidence based analysis was the RFK gang vote to remove thimerosal from flu vaccines, following a single presentation by an individual who introduced themselves as a “private citizen”. We wish we could have been there. A majority went for thimerosal-free single-dose formulations. Coupled with RFK Jr.’s documented stance on not recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children, the pattern becomes undeniably clear. Is this an anti-vaccine explosion? We believe so. Vaccines have been incredibly beneficial for public health in the USA and worldwide, saving countless lives and preventing widespread disease. Hell Spells,

tags: vaccination anti-vaccination activism COVID humans

20250624: A #TemperatureRise: 1.62°C reported by Copernicus

The escalating global temperature rise is not just news; it is an undeniable emergency that must be confronted with utmost urgency. The latest scientific data paints a stark picture: at least one of the next five years is projected to surpass 2024, a record-breaking year when the global average surface temperature climbed to 1.62°C above pre-industrial levels. As the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service staff detail: ‘The global-average temperature for the past 12 months (November 2023 - October 2024) was 0.74°C above the 1991-2020 average, and an estimated 1.62°C above the 1850 - 1900 pre-industrial average.’ (Source: https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2024-virtually-certain-be-warmest-year-and-first-year-above-15degc). This trend demands immediate and sustained focus.

tags: temprature temperaturerise activism GlobalWarming TemperatureRise TheShahel SahelianAcaciaSavanna