Jon Levy
@jonlevybu.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.1K following 260 posts
Professor and Chair of Dept of Environmental Health at BU School of Public Health. Focus on indoor and outdoor air, climate change, housing, and environmental justice. Occasional parental musings and the odd dad joke. Once called “Very human, relatable”.
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jonlevybu.bsky.social
The Trump administration wants to repeal the 2009 "Endangerment Finding", arguing that greenhouse gases don't actually harm health and well-being. A group of 100+ experts reviewed the literature and disagrees. We brought the receipts (400+ references). Full comment at zenodo.org/records/1728...
Expert Working Group on Climate Change and Health in the United States Comment on EPA's Proposed Reconsideration of 2009 Endangerment Finding
zenodo.org
Reposted by Jon Levy
jjbuonocore.bsky.social
Proud to be part of the Expert Working Group on Climate Change and Health that just put together a report summarizing the evidence of health harms of climate change to date. Report is here: zenodo.org/records/1728... 🛟 #climatesky
Expert Working Group on Climate Change and Health in the United States Comment on EPA's Proposed Reconsideration of 2009 Endangerment Finding
zenodo.org
Reposted by Jon Levy
yasharali.bsky.social
Earlier this year, Dr. Jane Goodall sat down for an interview for Brad Falchuk’s new Netflix series, Famous Last Words.

The premise of the series is to interview people on the condition that the interview not air until the subject has passed away.
Reposted by Jon Levy
nationalacademies.org
Cumulative impact assessment is the process of identifying and assessing the environmental impacts of multiple proposed projects.

Learn about our new report advising how to advance the science and practice behind cumulative impact assessment at our October 9 webinar: https://ow.ly/rsOf50X4uwA
A graphic with the text, "State-of-the-Science and the Future of Cumulative Impact Assessment, a webinar on October 9 from 3 to 4 PM Eastern Time."
jonlevybu.bsky.social
There are many things wrong with this idea, including:
1) Universities aren’t people. I may or may not believe what university leadership believes.
2) Research (at least for health) should be judged on whether it has good ideas for making people healthier. Less merit means worse health.
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
Awarding scientific grants based on scientific merit? That pales in comparison to my strategy, giving grants based on political loyalty

www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
Wp EXCLUSIVE
White House considers funding advantage for colleges that align with Trump policies The proposal could potentially transform the government's vast research funding operation, which has long awarded university grants based on scientific merit.
Today at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Reposted by Jon Levy
jamesgoodwin.bsky.social
"... Zeldin intends to sign off next week on the final policy and legal justifications for repealing the so-called endangerment finding and Biden-era climate rules for cars and trucks... before agency staff have time to sift through all public comments...." subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...
E&E News: Internal docs: Zeldin races ahead without analysis in endangerment rollback
The EPA administrator plans to sign off on the repeal's policy and legal justifications before his staff finishes the regulatory impact analysis.
subscriber.politicopro.com
Reposted by Jon Levy
marshallburke.bsky.social
Excellent coverage of our study out today on climate impacts on wildfire smoke and related health impacts.
Reposted by Jon Levy
jkutzie.bsky.social
The EPA cancelled grants that would help us understand how children are affected by climate change.

The agency response: Maybe Biden and Harris "shouldn’t have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and ‘environmental justice.'"

19thnews.org/2025/09/epa-...
In a single email, the EPA ended her research into how climate change endangers children
Jane Clougherty spent years studying how extreme weather affects kids’ health, but as climate threats continue to rise, the Trump administration cancelled her work.
19thnews.org
jonlevybu.bsky.social
We published a paper a while back, which is worth resurrecting - wind farms can yield hundreds of millions of dollars of health and climate benefits each year, as they displace polluting power plants.

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
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jonlevybu.bsky.social
The assault on wind is very similar to the assault on vaccines - ginning up evidence to support a desired policy that harms public health. Offshore wind is good for climate, air quality, and overall grid reliability.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/c...
White House Orders Agencies to Escalate Fight Against Offshore Wind
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Jon Levy
drdemetre.bsky.social
@citizencohn.bsky.social shares some of my story and the work that I have done on public health with thousands of scientists and implementers. We ended outbreak after outbreak TOGETHER. Many of those outbreaks occurred because of RFK Jr’s rhetoric. www.thebulwark.com/p/kennedy-rf...
This Is What—and Who—We’re Losing in RFK’s Purge
The story of one scientist, a career in public health, and the crisis at the CDC.
www.thebulwark.com
jonlevybu.bsky.social
The institutions that protect our health and safety - CDC, EPA, etc. - are being deliberately destroyed in a manner that will be hard to undo.

Whether this is to boost favored industries, pandemic backlash, or because ideology trumps evidence, the outcome is the same. We will be less healthy.
Reposted by Jon Levy
maibached.bsky.social
Hey @nytimes.com, you got the title wrong. Here’s the correct version:

How the Trump-Kennedy Alliance Is Bulldozing the Foundations of Public Health
How the Trump-Kennedy Alliance Is Pushing the Boundaries of Public Health
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Jon Levy
climate.us
Curious what we are all about?
Click the link: www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/c...
CNN news story, Climate.gov will re-launch under new URL thanks to a secret team of web ninjas
Reposted by Jon Levy
timmonsroberts.bsky.social
My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up.

NYT just covered it. 1/n

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...
Law Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind Groups
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Jon Levy
profcarlos.bsky.social
🚨 New PhD program in Community Health Sciences at @busph.bsky.social 🚨

Graduates will be trained to use social justice-focused, community-engaged approaches to address some of the most pressing public health issues facing us today. We are accepting applications this fall.
SPH Debuts New PhD in Community Health Sciences
The one-of-a-kind social and behavioral sciences-focused doctoral program will emphasize social justice and community engagement.
www.bu.edu
jonlevybu.bsky.social
Interesting to read this “priority” after my solutions-oriented environmental health disparities center application was administratively withdrawn without review 🤔
Reposted by Jon Levy
carlbergstrom.com
1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years.

Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.
Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal
www.whitehouse.gov
jonlevybu.bsky.social
I don’t want political appointees from this administration deciding what is meritorious research. But I wouldn’t want political appointees from ANY administration deciding that. That would mark the end of basic research, research with long-term benefits, etc.

www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Stops Wasteful Grantmaking
ENDING GRANT ABUSE: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order stopping unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats from wasting taxpayer dollars
www.whitehouse.gov
jonlevybu.bsky.social
Great example of how citizen science measurements of air pollution can be aggregated to provide meaningful regional and national data. At a time when federal data are disappearing or becoming less reliable, locally generated and compiled data will take on increasing importance.
jonlevybu.bsky.social
Network of PurpleAir monitors captures the widespread and substantial air quality impacts from Canadian wildfires extremely well (screenshot from map.purpleair.com, taken 5 minutes ago)
Map of fine particulate matter concentrations across the US today, showing elevated levels downwind of wildfires