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