The Void is Not Empty. It is Ours to Fill.

Dear Fellow Traveler,

What is asked of us in this dark and terrible time? I ask this daily since the last election. I seek answers for myself and for SEHN: What is mine, what is ours to do? Are you asking this too? 

The context for seeking answers to that question is the polycrisis that is upon us, with its cluster of economic instability, climate breakdown, new epidemics of old diseases… brought on or exacerbated by a political system in chaos led by nihilists who seek to destroy the media, nonprofits, universities, and scientific research, while selling off public lands and the post office to enrich the fossil fuel oligarchs and tech bros.

I’ve been reading about nihilism and characteristics of a nihilistic culture. The French anthropologist Emmanuel Todd defines it this way: 

Nihilism, as I understand it, has two fundamental dimensions. The most visible is the physical dimension: an impulse to destroy things and people… The second dimension is conceptual but no less essential, especially when we think about the destiny of societies, the reversible nature or not of their decline: nihilism then tends irresistibly to destroy the very notion of truth, to prohibit any reasonable description of the world.

Our responsibility at SEHN is to use science, the truth-seeking discipline, to protect public health and the environment. The current administration is dismantling the federal public health and environmental scientific infrastructure, the very infrastructure that warns us of hurricanes and tornadoes, develops public health protocols for looming epidemics, and examines the causes of toxic chemical disasters so we can prevent them in the future.

I don’t need to tell you all the bad news. If you are reading this, you already are aware of more examples of political nihilism than I can describe. 

At SEHN we recognize that this administration’s impulse to destroy things like clean water, public lands, and functional public health agencies raises new challenges. We at SEHN intend on meeting those challenges.

This is our answer to the question of what we shall then do: We will redouble our efforts and find the courage to tell the truth about fracking and plastics, to aid communities defending their lands and waters against polluters, and to stand for justice with people who have been betrayed by the lies being told by the fossil fuel industry and other corporate players.

We need your support. Will you make a financial gift to SEHN so that we continue this crucial work?

Here are some recent examples of how we are using science and telling the truths. 

In March 2025, Sandra Steingraber was invited by the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative to give two presentations on fracking at the World Health Organization’s Second Global Conference on Air Pollution and Public Health in Cartagena, Colombia. But get this: there were no attendees from the United States government because the recent withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization meant that there was no official U.S. delegation in attendance and very few U.S. participants. In the absence of the United States, Sandra was one of the few U.S. voices and an important presence describing the evidence for health harms of fracking. The specific goal of this gathering was to accelerate action for clean air, clean energy access, and climate change mitigation, and the meeting ended with the ratification of an agreement to reduce by 50 percent the health harms of air pollution by 2040. 

Ted Schettler brings his broad expertise to bear on the unintended health impacts of health care, particularly the impacts of materials used in medicine like plastics. In late 2024 he gave a presentation to an environmental forum of the World Medical Association on Plastic Pollution and the Health Sector, making the case that the medical profession and health care institutions have roles and responsibilities in efforts to reduce plastic waste and pollution. Similarly, he has been involved in a long-standing effort to ban the chemical known as DEHP in health care plastics, He provided analyses to legislators and activists on why the additive represents a health hazard, ultimately contributing to a ban of DEHP in intravenous bags in California.

Just a few weeks ago, with the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, Carmi Orenstein planned and facilitated a webinar entitled “Impacts of Fracking in North & South America: Resources in English & Spanish.” We provided a snapshot of ninth edition Compendium findings, the release and context of a new Spanish-language translation, and a discussion of the meaning of language justice by a member of the Argentine translation collective with whom we work. The webinar was simultaneously translated and people took part from Argentina, Central America, Mexico, the United States, and British Columbia and Nova Scotia in Canada. 

Much of my recent work has been tackling the main driver of the false climate solution known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and one of its key impacts. That driver is the 45Q tax credit. A crucial impact of CCS is on water, both quantity and quality. I helped mobilize a new coalition called the CCS Action Network that is working hard to either end 45Q or at a minimum, put a cap on it and install some fraud-prevention guardrails. 45Q is a budget-busting tax shelter for billionaires. I co-lead the water working group that is providing research, analysis, and fact sheets to activists across the country working to block CCS projects. We have discovered along the way that CCS is not the only emerging technology to have a large water footprint, but AI and cryptocurrencies require data centers, many of which will have a massive impact on water. We plan on working with activists, academics, and government officials to protect water in the face of these technological changes.

Our little team of scientists and lawyers is dedicated to standing against the destruction of all that we love, using the powerful tools of rigorous science and robust ethics. We need your help in doing so. 

Perhaps one of your answers regarding what you are called to do in the face of the polycrisis and the nihilistic government currently in power is to support fellow traveler organizations. If so, we would welcome your financial gift to SEHN.

As I have considered the antidotes to nihilism, one stands out: the power of gratitude. So many of you have been generous with your verbal and your financial contributions and support of the work we do at SEHN. I want to thank you for whatever you are doing to defend the Earth and her inhabitants. Thank you for all the ways you are showing up during this crisis. And thank you for supporting us at SEHN.