As a retired pediatrician, recent recipient of a diploma in climate medicine at the University of Colorado, and board chair of Healthy Air and Water Colorado, I am deeply concerned by recent developments threatening our community’s health.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a rollback of its critical endangerment finding, a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy that identifies greenhouse gas emissions as a significant threat to public health and welfare. Despite these challenging times and the daily flood of news from Washington, D.C., this backward action requires our full attention.

This finding is foundational to the essential protections provided by the Clean Air Act. Rolling it back directly undermines the health and safety of every community across the country. Public health is fundamentally nonpartisan — pollution doesn’t differentiate between party affiliation, red and blue states, or rural and urban communities. This policy change threatens every American’s health.

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The consequences of weakening these protections are clear: increased toxins in our air and water and heightened pollution in neighborhoods where families live, work, and play. The result is unmistakable: lifelong harm to human health, leading directly to increased rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, alongside elevated cardiovascular disease risks.

As a pediatrician, I’ve seen firsthand the devastating impacts pollution can have on especially vulnerable children. But there is something we can do about it, especially here in Colorado.

Unlike the troubling federal rollbacks, our state continues to  proactively safeguard public health and our environment. In January, Colorado identified five priority air toxics that require urgent action. This week, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will release draft rules to manage air toxics and methane emissions specifically from community landfills — a significant source of pollutants.

These local efforts demonstrate a meaningful commitment to protecting public health and maintaining clean air. Yet, they rely heavily on public support and advocacy. Our collective voices matter immensely, and active participation from citizens is critical to maintaining the progress we’ve made and advocating for further positive change. Now is the time for Coloradans to speak up and engage with state lawmakers and regulators to ensure all Coloradans, especially our vulnerable children, are protected from preventable environmental harm.

Public health is not — and should never be — a partisan issue. Colorado must continue to prioritize clean air initiatives and comprehensive pollution control measures, ensuring Colorado remains a national leader in protecting public health.