Climate change is making you sick

[Music]

as you all know

coven 19 has been a health care

nightmare like nothing we have ever seen

it has overwhelmed hospitals threatened

global economies

and caused the death of more than a

million people

as physicians you might think that our

intent tonight

is to talk to you about our experience

with kovid

but instead we are going to warn you

about a much bigger challenge on the

horizon

and that is the health impact

of climate change we often think of

climate change as something that’s going

to impact our health in

10 20 years but we’re here to tell you

that climate change is here and now

i’m a pediatrician john’s a cardiologist

and we’re already seeing the health

impacts of climate change in our

patients

tonight we’re going to talk to you about

three medical conditions

related to climate change that we are

seeing right now

and what we as physicians and all of us

as citizens can do to help stop this

there’s a good chance that you or

somebody you know

has already experienced one of these

conditions but you may not have realized

that climate change was the cause

let’s start with vector-borne illnesses

these are diseases carried by insects

when i first came to minnesota as a

doctor 25 years ago

i’d heard of lyme disease it’s carried

by ticks but i had never seen a case

then a little girl showed up in my

office with a rash on her face

a month later she couldn’t stand up in

the shower or walk down the stairs

she had lyme meningitis lyme disease

can cause rashes arthritis nervous

system problems

heart problems red eyes prolonged

fatigue and achiness

what was once an incredibly rare disease

is now commonplace in saint cloud we see

it all the time

even more than in the twin cities where

they spray for insects

we also see it more often in children

than adults because they’re smaller so

they’re closer to the weeds

and they also play outdoors more often

in the woods in the fields

this huge increase in cases might seem

like a coincidence

but the reality is our climate has

changed

minnesota winters are milder and shorter

than before lime

transmitting ticks can now live through

the warmer winter

producing more ticks a longer tick

season

and more lyme disease but that’s just

one example

as our lakes and oceans warm sea levels

rise

and coastal areas flood we see more

frequent toxic algae blooms and an

increase in vector-borne diseases

remember zika virus in the news four

years ago

women that were pregnant in brazil had

newborns that were born with severe

birth defects

well because of our changing climate the

mosquito from south america that carries

zika

now lives in florida all year round

heavy rains and warm temperatures have

helped that mosquito thrive

zika is now endemic in florida and we’ve

actually seen it here in minnesota and

returning travelers

there are thousands of diseases

transmitted by insects

we can only expect more problems as our

climate changes in warms

one of the biggest changes i have seen

as a cardiologist

is how climate affects our breathing

patients with heart disease are

oftentimes short of breath

and sometimes they have associated lung

disease like emphysema

a common type of chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease

sometimes but not always related to

smoking

as air pollution worsens all of these

patients

have more trouble breathing i care for a

couple in their 80s

both of whom have heart disease

it has been their habit to go outside

for a daily walk

they have been physically fit and able

to live independently in their own home

because of hotter temperatures and

higher humidity

this year they have been less able to go

outside

they are now less physically fit and

they fear

that they will have to move to an

assisted living facility

and those patients are adults when it

comes to air pollutants

and high temperatures children are even

more vulnerable

they have higher respiratory rates than

adults and so they breathe more air than

adults

when the air is hot and polluted or the

weather patterns are abnormal

we see many more asthma admissions to

the hospital we’re

also seeing longer seasons of allergy

symptoms in children

and you might have noticed this too you

know the itchy watery eyes the itchy

sneezy nose that just goes on forever

well allergies can also trigger asthma

exacerbations

if kids can’t breathe they miss out on

things like school and playing with

their friends

it stunts their development warmer

minnesota winters

mean delayed autumn frost and earlier

spring thaw

this means more pollen and a longer

pollen season

this year wildfires in the western u.s

have burned millions of acres and

destroyed thousands of homes

they have created unprecedented air

pollution for people living in oregon

and washington and california

but more shocking is the fact that soot

and microparticulates from these western

wildfires

are now in minnesota these

microparticulates

are especially dangerous because we

can’t see them

they lodge deep in our lungs and can

cause permanent lung

injury the minnesota epa

has recently predicted that because of

worsened air pollution

here they may in the future have to

start canceling

outside events like a major league

baseball game

we used to think of environmental health

in terms of a person’s proximity to an

unsafe location

if you worked in a coal mine or live

next to a busy freeway

you could get sick but now we know

you can be a thousand miles away from a

climate event

and still get sick that’s how bad this

is

and finally let’s talk about nutrition

as a pediatrician i know the unfortunate

reality is that more than 50 percent of

the children in our area

get their main nutrition from school

breakfast and lunch

with severe weather events we’re seeing

more school closures

and if the schools can’t open they may

not eat

children also eat more calories in

proportion to their body weight

than adults and so those calories need

to be nutritious

when our grain crops are grown under

high heat conditions

it reduces the protein content in that

grain

and children need protein to grow and

develop

malnourishment in children decreases

their brain growth and development

which impacts their future potential

it’s also true that extreme weather

events so the hurricanes tornadoes hail

storms floods droughts

can destroy our crops and they can

improve the breeding ground

for things like locusts of which they

had a huge outbreak recently in africa

and if you ever read the little house on

the prairie books you’ll remember that

locusts eat

every green thing in sight

fewer crops means less food for everyone

i have a patient who planted six

thousand acres of soybeans then his farm

did not get a drop of rain in more than

two months

then in one day he got six inches of

rain

and his entire crop just washed away

he now requires mental health counseling

due to the trauma of the loss of his

livelihood

and the stress of being unable to

support his family

the suicide rate of farmers now exceeds

the suicide rate of military veterans

it used to be that farmers could rely on

predictable weather cycles

as our planet warms the warmer air

holds on to more moisture which leads to

more evaporation

and then precipitation this turns into

more intense water cycles

so some areas of the u.s are suffering

from prolonged droughts

while other areas like minnesota are

seeing

frequent 100-year rainstorms destroying

crops and flooding homes

this affects the food supply for all of

us and the mental health of the farmers

who grow our food

these are just a few examples of the

medical conditions

related to climate change than we see

right now here in minnesota but the

global reality is

much much worse when i talk to other

physicians

many continue to deny what seems so

obvious

but let me be perfectly clear if you are

a doctor

listening to us this evening what you

are seeing in your patients

is not a coincidence it is not normal

it is climate change right here right

now

in your clinic and hospital it reminds

me of how we had an abundance of

evidence that cigarettes were harmful

and yet many in the medical community

took

decades to act on it hundreds of

millions of people have since died from

smoking are we going to ignore the

evidence

will we delay if we as healthcare

providers

are who we say we are if we put our

patients above all else

if we took that oath to do no harm

then isn’t it professional negligence to

ignore the climate crisis

our role as physicians is to speak out

about this

and to use the power and the influence

of the medical community to push for

reforms

you might be thinking what can you do

well you can vote the climate crisis

is a health crisis and covid19 has shown

us

exactly what can go wrong when politics

and healthcare collide please don’t wait

until you are a patient sitting in our

clinic

then it may be too late

this year our health and the health of

our children

is on the ballot let’s all vote

thank you thank you

you