ASM Recognizes Biden Administration’s Initial Steps To Address Climate Change
Today, President Biden unveiled a set of executive orders to elevate climate change as matter of national security and initiate regulatory actions to address climate change domestically. ASM is encouraged by the Biden Administration’s commitment to science and to accelerating efforts in the U.S. to tackle this global problem. Climate change has broad negative impacts on human and animal health, the global economy and the availability of natural resources. Because microbes play a key role in mitigating climate change, microbial research should be part of any comprehensive plan to address this global crisis.
Microbiologists have harnessed the power of microbes to improve human and environmental health given the roles of these organisms in the earth’s carbon and nitrogen cycles. Microbes can have positive and negative responses to temperature, making them an important component of climate change models. Microbiologists also have uncovered connections between climate change and the rise of resistant new infectious organisms.
ASM supports continued funding for foundational research and policies that facilitate the translation of microbial research to real-world, scalable solutions in renewable energy, water quality and sustainable agriculture, and the adoption of those solutions. These efforts also will require interagency coordination and data collection and integration on an unusually grand scale.
ASM looks forward to working with the Administration and Congress to ensure that science is front and center in policy approaches to the crisis, and we stand ready to bring this expertise to bear in adapting to and mitigating climate change.
