Earth Matters: Climate change and threats to our health

The Island Now

Climate change or global warming was once discussed only among scientists and academics. Now it dominates conversations at the United Nations, the Pentagon, international medical conferences, congressional hearings, corporate boardrooms, classrooms, and kitchen tables.

The concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere is the highest it has been in three million years, and we are witness almost daily to the effects of this planetary crisis in the form of changes in weather patterns, the size and frequency of damaging storms and catastrophic weather-related events such as forest fires and floods, droughts, heat waves and warming seas and sea-level rise.

Of course, all of this disruption has had a big impact on the economies of the world and we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. And yet, even though it has already cost billions of dollars and has been predicted to cost governments around the world in the trillions of dollars, we have not made significant commitments to the changes we need to make. Instead, we continue to subsidize the fossil fuel industries, even offering new opportunities for more oil and gas drilling offshore, in our national parks and pristine wildlife refuges. Is this because our leaders still believe that climate change is a hoax or that they are just interested in short term financial gains?

There is another side to this climate change story and it is still mostly being discussed by scientists and academics. It is the story of what climate change is doing to our health right now and how it will likely impact us moving forward, especially our children and future generations.

Considering their inherent biological susceptibility and their longer future lifetimes over which early insults can be manifested as chronic disease or cognitive impairment, children are uniquely vulnerable for both acute and chronic impacts of climate change and fossil fuel-related air pollution. A 2004 study suggested that 88 percent of illness from climate change will occur in children under five years of age.

These health effects in children include dehydration, worsening asthma and other respiratory illnesses (in some cases due to longer pollen seasons), significant increases in the growth of bacteria, viruses and insect borne diseases, food supply interruptions and extreme weather injuries. Their fragile emotional development also puts them at risk for mental illness due to traumatic weather events and longer durations of extreme weather.

Heat related illnesses accounted for upwards of 70,000 premature deaths during the 2003 heatwave. These were due to acute illnesses as well as the worsening of pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, cardiovascular, respiratory, kidney and diabetes-related conditions. Higher temperatures also increase vector-borne diseases that are carried by mosquitoes, ticks, fleas and rodents, like Lyme disease and West Nile virus, by increasing the geographic range of the disease-carrying insects and in some cases by speeding up the insect’s reproductive cycle. Climate related heat also worsens air quality because it’s easier for ground-level ozone to form.

Rising seas and flooding can compromise drinking water quality and put people into direct contact with sewage when human wastewater treatment plants overflow, increasing waterborne diseases caused by pathogens. Food shortages and food contamination are also linked to severe storm events which cause flooding of farmland.

In recent years, we have seen this happen firsthand in our local coastal areas and have seen pictures of devastated farmlands in the Midwest. Hurricane Sandy was a wake-up call for all of us. Millions of people were affected both directly and indirectly, and for too many, flood-damaged homes are still under construction and have been further compromised by indoor mold growth.

My conversations about climate change with family around the kitchen table and in casual meetings with friends seem to center around feelings of despair for our kid’s future. The feeling of powerlessness is upsetting and depressing, but probably not as acute as the feelings of those on the front lines. Farmers, fisherman, indigenous communities and others who live off the land are confronting real world climate change problems every day.

But it is the scientists who may bear the brunt most acutely. According to Lise Van Susteren, a psychiatrist in Washington D.C., climate scientists are “at the very tip of the spear… watching Armageddon in slow motion, cataloging loss every day. Those who’ve spent their career studying a species or ecosystem that’s rapidly disappearing suffer the most.”

Scientists have spent decades warning about climate change consequences, yet climate-warming carbon emissions continue to rise and 2020 is projected to be another record-setting year of global CO2 emissions.

I read somewhere that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time was now. It’s an idea that can be applied to many things we do, or shouldn’t do. The best time to divest from fossil fuels is now. The best time to plan a vacation near home instead of traveling by air is now. The best time to trade in the gas-guzzling SUV for a hybrid vehicle that uses less gasoline and emits fewer pollutants is right now. And the best time to help your children appreciate our natural world and all its wonder is now.

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