Climate Health Emergency

 

Last week during a press event highlighting his administration’s new actions on climate change, the President of the United States did not declare a National Climate Emergency. The president’s omission is newsworthy not just because summer temperature records were smashed in the U.S. and in cities across the globe last week (115° Fahrenheit in Wichita Falls, Texas; 110° in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; 104° in West Plains, Missouri; 115° in Lousã, Portugal; 109° in Ourense, Spain; 104° in London), but because a growing chorus of Americans that include doctors, nurses, and other health providers and public health experts have been loudly demanding immediate and aggressive climate action.

For example, last September the New England Journal of Medicine published an appeal for “urgent action to limit greenhouse gas emissions to protect human health.” In an unprecedented move, the editorial simultaneously appeared in more than 200 health journals worldwide:

Health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world, a state of affairs health professionals have been bringing attention to for decades. The science is unequivocal: a global increase of 1.5° C above the pre-industrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse. Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with Covid-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions.

Reflecting the severity of the moment, this editorial appears in health journals across the world. We are united in recognizing that only fundamental and equitable changes to societies will reverse our current trajectory.

 

The American Medical Association isn’t afraid of calling climate change a public health crisis:

With climate change negatively impacting the health in the U.S. and around the globe, the American Medical Association (AMA) today adopted policy during the Annual Meeting of its House of Delegates declaring climate change a public health crisis that threatens the health and well-being of all people.

 

There’s no better time than the present to declare a climate emergency (well, a year ago… or ten, would have definitely offered a brighter prognosis for humanity). Caron G. Solomon, M.D. and colleagues explain why health professionals feel a sense of duty to protect their patients and communities against this growing threat to health and safety:

Why are fossil fuels an issue for medicine and, specifically, for medical journals? Their extraction and use are the root cause of air pollution and climate change. Each year, an estimated 8.7 million people die worldwide because of fossil-fuel–generated particulate air pollution, and the total number of deaths attributable to climate change is not even known. Air pollution and climate change also cause and exacerbate myriad health conditions, including heat-related illnesses, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, allergic conditions, vectorborne disease, pregnancy complications, and mental health disorders. Although nearly everyone is affected to some extent, health consequences are distributed inequitably. Owing to economic injustice and systemic racism, low-income communities and certain racial and ethnic groups often experience the greatest harms, despite their contributing the least to greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. As caregivers, we must be leaders in ameliorating these problems.

Climate change is also increasingly disrupting health sector infrastructure, power, and supply chains, especially during climate-intensified events such as wildfires, floods, and hurricanes. In a recent […] survey of nearly 800 global health care leaders, 70% of U.S. respondents reported that climate change is already affecting care delivery. Yet less than a quarter of respondents reported that their organizations had assessed their own climate-related hazards.

 

The reasons why health care providers are concerned about the climate crisis are pretty simple and straightforward:

1. Climate change is harming human health, especially the health of vulnerable populations.

2. Climate change threatens access to clean air, safe drinking water, healthy nutritious food, and shelter. These are the most important social determinants of health.

3. Climate-driven extreme weather events are impacting health care access and delivery. Hurricanes, flooding, heatwaves, and disturbances to the electrical grid can all shut down health care facilities when they are most needed.

4. The health sector has a significant climate impact, accounting for nearly 9% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Our offices and hospital systems must do better conserving energy and limiting the amount of waste that is generated.

5. The health care sector has a moral obligation to protect public health by using its influence to promote climate-smart health care and climate solutions.

As two of the most trusted sources of information regarding human health, physicians and nurses can use their voices and expertise to educate patients, the public, policymakers and health administrators about the health impacts of climate change. It’s time we step up and be part of the solution instead of the problem:

As members of the medical and care delivery community, our readers are optimally positioned to reduce the devastating consequences of climate change and air pollution by instituting practices and advocating for policies that foster health and equity. The health of our patients, and our world, demands our engagement.

 

Tomorrow, we’ll look at how climate change places the highest burden on children’s health and well-being.

 

(Google Images)

 

source http://www.thepediablog.com/2022/07/27/climate-health-emergency/