Since President Trump was re-elected into office, the Trump administration has been quick to bring many major changes to the nation. These actions included imposing tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, withdrawing from international agreements such as the World Health Organization, and strengthening immigration policies.
In an even further shift, the US State Department confirmed on Tuesday that it would shut down pollution monitoring abroad. According to The Washington Post, a spokesperson stated, “Starting on March 4, the Department’s Air Quality Monitoring Program will no longer be able to transmit air pollution data from our embassies and consulates.” The reason for this withdrawal was vaguely linked to “budget constraints.”
Some suspect that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE system, influenced the decision since it aimed to drastically reduce government spending. However, no evidence is available to support this speculation.
The US State Department’s Air Quality Monitoring Program is a global initiative compiling public data on air pollution. It was first installed in 2008 by the US Embassy Beijing to reduce health risks from air pollution and help increase public understanding, growing to involve 80 embassies and consulates worldwide. For more than a decade since then, the program has provided accurate, hourly data on air quality for 80 countries like India, Indonesia, Argentina, China, and more.
Health officials have criticized that stopping the data collection would harm not only the people native to the countries, but also Americans working overseas. According to The New York Times, Gina McCarthy, leader of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Obama administration, has stated, “Embassies are situated sometimes in very difficult air quality circumstances…You can’t send people in risky areas without information.”
A finding from 2022 exploring the impacts of the Air Quality Monitoring Program stated that host countries took action to reduce air pollution when reports showed the severity of their country’s air conditions. For example, in China, the US Embassy released information on PM 2.5, a particulate matter causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems that was prevalent in China’s air. While the Chinese government initially tried preventing the Embassy from releasing more records, they eventually ended up working towards healthy air conditions and cooperating with the US to control pollution.
Such efforts around the world are predicted to have “reduced the risk of premature death for more than 300 million individuals” by increasing awareness and action, as stated in The New York Times. In heavily polluted areas such as Pakistan, the program provided important information on hazardous air conditions, making the program’s removal concerning for those in the area who have little access to other reliable sources.
While many of the countries that were watched by the air quality program have their own public air monitoring systems, the US State Department was still a useful source for comparison and for looking back at historical records. Shutting down the monitoring will most likely have consequences for the climate and well-being of individuals living in polluted areas.
The global benefits of the US State Department Air Quality Monitoring Program are apparent, and putting a halt to the initiative is raising concerns in many of the most vulnerable parts of the world. The decision calls into question how the administration is handling environmental policies since their coming to power, leaving many to wonder about the long-term implications of these rapidly amounting changes.
