RFK Jr., onetime environmentalist, kills NIH climate change programs

In 1999, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then an environmental lawyer, was named by Time magazine as a “hero of the planet” for his pioneering work to clean up America’s waterways. On February 14 of this year, his second day as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, he ended HHS funding for climate change and health programs at the National Institutes of Health, a move that will likely terminate this work.

That day, Ken Callahan, a senior adviser for policy and implementation in the Immediate Office of the Secretary for HHS, sent an email to Dr. Matthew Memoli, the acting director of NIH, noting that HHS would no longer support three programs run by the agency: the Climate Change and Health Initiative, the Climate Change and Health Research Coordinating Center, and the Climate and Health Scholars Program. In the email, a copy of which was obtained by Mother Jones, Callahan cited Executive Order 14154, titled “Unleashing American Energy,” which President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office last month to revoke executive orders President Joe Biden had previously issued to implement actions to address climate change.

NIH, Callahan wrote Memoli, “will no longer participate in the…three initiatives unless Congressional [sic] mandate/authorized.” He left open the possibility that NIH could move forward on its own with the scholars program.

These NIH programs do not focus on the causes of climate change. Instead, they concentrate on research and training to protect people from the health consequences of extreme weather events.

The Climate Change and Health Initiative, according to its website, “aims to stimulate research to reduce health threats from climate change across the lifespan and build health resilience in individuals, communities, and nations around the world, especially among those at highest risk.​” Its annual budget is $40 million.

A recent fact sheet prepared by the program notes that it has funded projects that study the long-term health impacts of wildfires; develop strategies for combating malaria (an increasing threat in the United States as temperatures rise); assess plans for addressing children’s asthma following hurricanes (which cause the spread of mold and mildew, exacerbating the disease); examine how common medications can make older adults more sensitive to heat; research how best to deal with gastrointestinal injury caused by heat-related algae blooms; and explore the the connection between heart health risks and drought. It has also sponsored projects that seek to predict the spread of Lyme disease, reduce the exposure of schoolchildren to wildfire smoke, and use urban planning to make cities more flood resistant.

The Climate Change and Health Research Coordinating Center was set up in 2023 to foster collaboration within the research community to better understand and reduce the health consequences of climate change. The Climate and Health Scholars Program connects climate and health scientists from outside the federal government with NIH researchers.

Callahan, the Kennedy aide who wielded the axe, served as chief of staff to the deputy HHS secretary during the first Trump administration. Prior to that he was a Republican operative, who worked several jobs in the GOP world, including director of political and field operations at the Republican Party of Wisconsin and direct marketing manager at the National Republican Congressional Committee. For the past four years, he has been a principal at the Hargan Group, a healthcare industry consulting firm.

As climate change progresses, research has increasingly pointed to the many health threats it poses. According to a 2022 study, more than half of known human pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by the crisis, including dengue and malaria. As Inside Climate News recently reported:

Climate change already kills Americans every year through rising heat, floods, runaway wildfires, exacerbated air pollution and other impacts. It’s also linked to increased spread of infectious disease, rising risks of chronic illness and heightened pandemic risk. The World Health Organization estimated in 2023 that climate effects will cause an extra 250,000 deaths a year globally between 2030 and 2050.

Such worrisome findings have prompted an increasing number of health researchers to focus on the issue. In its 2024 annual report, the Climate Change and Health Initiative put it this way: “As climate-change related disasters and exposures become more frequent and detrimental to human health, NIH must continue to undertake the research needed to understand and address the health impacts of our changing climate—especially for vulnerable populations in the US and globally.”

In the past weeks, Elon Musk’s crusade to dismantle large chunks of the federal government has targeted climate-change-related programs. The HHS decision to stop funding the NIH programs appear to be in sync with that, and it certainly jibes with Trump’s long-running and baseless denial of the climate crisis. (He has called it a hoax originating in China.) HHS did not respond for a request for comment.

During one of his confirmation hearings for the HHS position last month, Kennedy pointed out that on the topic of climate change, he and Trump “agree to disagree.” He stated, “I believe climate change is existential. My job is to make Americans healthy again.”

But these are not separate matters. According to the scientific and public health communities, there is a strong connection between these two issues that Kennedy has professed to care about. Yet in his initial hours as HHS secretary, he moved to kill NIH programs that strive to protect the health of Americans from the various threats of a warming globe. In doing so, this former “hero of the planet” failed to live up to both his past passion and his much-ballyhooed mission of the moment.