Climate change is a health emergency

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climate change is a health emergency i’m

an emergency medicine physician

so my job boils down to a couple of main

things identifying life-threatening

conditions

that are time sensitive or require

immediate intervention

in order to prevent a negative health

outcome health emergencies

climate change is a health emergency my

hope is by the end of this talk that

you’ll view climate change this way too

and you’ll be motivated to advocate for

urgent action to stop climate change

in order to protect human health

climate change impacts health in many

many different ways through

increasing air temperatures worsening

air quality

the increased frequency and severity of

extreme weather events

as well as the spread of certain

infectious diseases

water insecurity and food insecurity

i think most people are pretty familiar

with the concept of increasing air

temperatures

so global warming the average global

temperature is increasing

at these high temperatures we actually

have significant effects on our own

health

at very very high temperatures the body

is unable to regulate itself

you end up getting things like heat

exhaustion and heat stroke

and at persistently high temperatures

you have worsening of chronic diseases

like heart disease

lung disease even kidney disease

and these impacts are actually quite

significant in 2003

there was a heat wave in europe a very

very resource-rich continent

that actually resulted in 70 000

premature deaths

so these are profound impacts that we’re

having on our health just from the

increasing air temperatures

with climate change we also see

worsening air quality

through a variety of mechanisms but as

we combust

fossil fuel we not only emit greenhouse

gases into the air

but we also emit toxic pollutants that

are extremely harmful to our health

things that increase the concentration

of ground level ozone

as well as particulate matter when you

breathe things like particulate matter

into your lungs

it causes inflammation leading to things

like asthma and copd exacerbations

as well as infections like pneumonia and

even in the long run things like lung

cancer

the world health organization states

that air pollution is the single largest

environmental cause of premature death

globally

and every year air pollution causes

7 million premature deaths and we are

doing this to ourselves

we are emitting these toxic pollutants

that are causing illness and millions of

deaths

every year

we’re also seeing an increasing

frequency and severity of extreme

weather events like hurricanes

wildfires floods droughts

extreme precipitation events like storms

and not only do these events themselves

impact health through things like

traumatic injury during the event but

also the aftermath of these events have

significant effects on health

for instance in 2017 hurricane maria hit

puerto rico

and initially resulted in about 60

deaths but it also damaged power

infrastructure so people without power

for months

it damaged and destroyed roads and it

damaged telephone communications

so ultimately people were unable to

access their health care facilities

they were unable to obtain medications

refrigerate medications that needed to

be kept cool

and some were even unable to access

emergency medical services

so months after the actual event

happened

it was actually responsible for

thousands of deaths as many as 4 500

people died

in the aftermath of this hurricane and

as we have increasing frequency and

severity of these events we would only

expect these events to worsen in the

future as well

with climate change we’re seeing a

spread of certain infectious diseases

due to increasing air temperatures and

water temperatures

so lyme disease which affects your skin

your heart and even your brain

as well as vibrio which can cause

gastrointestinal illness

and wound infections are both moving

further and further north as

temperatures warm

since the 1990s we’ve had consistently

increasing levels of lyme disease

and vibrio infections have actually

tripled in the last two decades as well

our water security is threatened by

climate change

with things like storms extreme

precipitation flooding

and even drought we have contamination

of water supplies

so people are unable to access clean

water for drinking

cooking and hygiene all of which are

important for health

and food is actually impacted in

multiple ways

higher air temperatures lead to

increased spoilage and contamination of

the crops that we produce

and extreme weather events that damage

roads make it harder for us to

distribute the crops that we do produce

also higher levels of carbon dioxide in

the atmosphere

decrease the nutritional content of the

crops that we produce

so higher levels of co2 actually lead to

less protein and less minerals

in our crops we would expect that as co2

levels

continue to increase these protein

levels will continue to decrease

and will end up with malnutrition and

worsening health effects due to this as

well

not surprisingly climate change has

significant effects on mental health

especially after things like extreme

weather events

as well as displacement from water and

food insecurity

there are significantly increasing

numbers of anxiety

depression and ptsd and again

as climate change worsens we would only

expect

this trend to worsen as well these are

just a handful of the

many many ways the climate change

directly impacts

individuals human health ultimately

it causes illness and death it’s a

life-threatening condition

and we treat it by decreasing our levels

of emissions

in order to limit planetary warming the

intergovernmental panel on climate

change states that we need to limit our

warming to 1.5 degrees celsius

compared to pre-industrial levels by the

end of this century

the way that we do that is by decreasing

our carbon emissions by 45

of 2010 levels by the year 2030

and we need to reach net zero emissions

by 2050.

this is an incredibly daunting task but

the longer we wait to decrease the

emissions the harder it will be to reach

this goal

because once greenhouse gases are

emitted into the atmosphere they have

long

lasting warming effects the sooner we’re

able to decrease these emissions

the better chance we have at limiting

our warming

so climate change is a life-threatening

condition

that requires immediate intervention to

prevent negative health outcomes

climate change is a health emergency

so what can we do about it well action

needs to be taken on the individual

regional state national and

international level

in order for us to decrease these

emissions on an individual level

you can do things like adopt a

plant-based diet or even just decrease

the amount of red meat and dairy in your

diet because livestock and agriculture

contribute so significantly to our

greenhouse gas emissions

you can also actively commute to work so

walking or biking

instead of driving a car and if you do

have to drive

then consider combining your trips in

order to minimize the amount of fossil

fuel that you burn

you can use energy efficient appliances

in your home and try to focus on

decreasing the amount of waste that you

produce

and while your personal contribution is

extremely important

this is a systemic problem and we need

systemic change

since 1988 only 100 companies

account for over 70 percent of our

greenhouse gas emissions

this is a systemic problem that needs

systemic change

we need to move towards a zero carbon

economy by

increasing the amount of renewable

energy we use increasing our energy

efficiency and energy storage

and most importantly decreasing our

greenhouse gas emissions

like carbon dioxide and methane

we have the tools to do this they exist

the solutions are out there

but we need policies to be in place for

us to be able to implement these

solutions

that’s why the most important thing you

can do is elect policy makers that view

climate change as the primary issue

if you find that your policy maker does

not view climate change as the primary

issue

then consider becoming a policy maker

yourself because we need to act

now climate change is a health emergency

and we have no more time to waste

thank you

you