It’s a pattern we can no longer ignore: Climate change is already devastating Michigan.

Toxic pollution, floods, and environmental racism are all taking an unjust toll on our health, on our society, and on our economy — that’s why 60% of Michigan voters believe both the President and Congress should do more to address climate change.

Yet Donald Trump continues to ignore the experts. And he continues to advance an anti-science agenda.

As a result, the lives and livelihoods of everyone who calls Michigan home are under threat.

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THE CRISIS

Donald Trump, and his allies like John James and Betsy DeVos, may be able to deny the science of climate change. But it is impossible to ignore the climate disasters unfolding across Michigan:

Three flooding events led to five deaths and $12 billion in damages — including the historic flooding of 2020 in Midland, which forced 10,000 people to be evacuated.

Two droughts, from 2009 to 2016, caused a total of $45.9 billion in damages and resulted in the deaths of 176 people.

Seventeen counties have received F grades for their air pollution.

What’s more, communities of color bear the brunt of this challenge. Clean, lead-free water is still being denied to communities of color in Michigan. And pollution from pipelines, manufacturing facilities, and fossil fuel refineries continue to poison the air in the most vulnerable areas of the state.

Unless we take bold climate action, the severity of these disasters will only increase. Michigan will see more devastating storms, floods, droughts, and pollution.

Now is the time for action.

THE COSTS

Climate deniers like Donald Trump, and his allies like John James, are inflicting real harm on communities across Michigan — costing us our incomes, our natural resources, and even our lives.

Here are just a few examples:

• The air is dirty — and getting dirtier. In 2019, 17 counties in Michigan received an F grade for ozone pollution, and Detroit was ranked among the top 10 worst cities in America for pollution.

• Natural disasters are getting worse. We all saw the devastation in Midland in 2020, where 10,000 Michiganders were evacuated from their homes in a series of floods that scientists say were made more severe by climate change. And that’s just a microcosm of what’s to come: Cycles of drought and flooding are leading the Great Lakes to become “the erratic high seas of the Midwest.”

• The economy is suffering. In 2019, Michigan ranked fifth for clean energy employment in the U.S., and second for clean energy jobs in rural areas. But there’s potential for even more — one analysis shows Donald Trump’s war on clean energy has cost Michigan nearly 25,000 good-paying clean energy jobs.

• Environmental racism has deep roots in Michigan Yet to this day, communities of color bear the brunt of Trump’s disastrous policies. The single most polluted ZIP code in Michigan, 48217, is 81% Black, and four of the five most polluting refineries in Michigan are within five miles of this ZIP code. What’s more, six years after the city’s water crisis became public, 15% of Flint’s lead pipes have still not been replaced.

FROM OUR RESEARCH TEAM

• Climate Disasters in Michigan
• What Do Trump’s Attacks On Science Mean For Michigan?