"I don't know why they canceled the meeting, but I do know the meeting was important and should have been held. Politics is politics, but protecting the health of our citizens is one of our government's most important obligations to us," Maibach said in an email. "Climate change is bad for America, and bad for the world, in so many ways. One of these ways is that it is harming our health, already, and is likely to get much worse over the next few decades unless we take action. As the nation's public health agency, we need CDC to be fully engaged in protecting our health from climate change."