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