U.S. Climate Equity Office Debuts, But With a Tiny Budget
By Ariel Wittenberg, E&E News Photo: Luke Sharrett Getty Images
It aims to help communities become more resilient to climate change, particularly its health impacts
HEALTH
A changing climate has widespread implications for human health. The World Health Organization writes that “over the last 50 years, human activities — particularly the burning of fossil fuels — have released sufficient quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to trap additional heat in the lower atmosphere and affect the global climate.
“In the last 130 years, the world has warmed by approximately 0.85°C. Each of the last 3 decades has been successively warmer than any preceding decade since 1850.
“Although global warming may bring some localized benefits, such as fewer winter deaths in temperate climates and increased food production in certain areas, the overall health effects of a changing climate are likely to be overwhelmingly negative. Climate change affects social and environmental determinants of health — clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.”
CREDIT: Colorado Health Institute
CURRENT NEWS
Medical Journals Call Climate Change the ‘Greatest Threat to Global Public Health’
By Winston Choi-Schagrin Photo: Tojo Andrianarivo for The New York Times
A collection of leading health and medical journals called this week for swift action to combat climate change, calling on governments to cooperate and invest…
Medical Journals Call Climate Change the ‘Greatest Threat to Global Public Health’
By Winston Choi-Schagrin Photo: Tojo Andrianarivo for The New York Times
A collection of leading health and medical journals called this week for swift action to combat climate change, calling on governments to cooperate and invest…
Cutting air pollution levels could raise life expectancy by 2 years: study
By Sharon Udasin
Reducing global air pollution levels to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines would boost average life expectancy by 2.2 years, a new study has…
HHS Establishes Office of Climate Change and Health Equity
Protecting Americans’ health and well-being has always been at the heart of fighting climate change, and now for the first time, its importance is being…
Biden Opens New Federal Office for Climate Change, Health and Equity
By Lisa Friedman Photo: Nathan Howard/Associated Press
Amid deadly heat waves and new evidence showing that wildfire smoke may contribute to premature births, the Biden administration is creating a new federal office…
Trump let this pesticide stay on the market. Under Biden, EPA is banning its use on food.
By Dino Grandoni Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP
EPA to ban chlorpyrifos, linked to neurological damage in young children, on crops such as grapes, broccoli and strawberries – reversing a Trump public health…
Climate change is harming people’s health, emergency room doctor says
By YCC Team Photo: Bob Nicholas , USDA
Renee Salas is an emergency medicine doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. For her, global warming is not some abstract, future threat.
Beyond human endurance
By Ruby Mellen and William Neff
When it comes to heat, the human body is remarkably resilient — it’s the humidity that makes it harder to cool down. And humidity, driven…
How to Soothe Climate Anxiety With Hope and Action
By Sarah Simon Photo: Getty Images
Over the past couple of weeks, it seems like climate disasters are happening everywhere we look. In the U.S. alone, a heat dome blazed in the…
Biden administration, workers grapple with health threats posed by climate change and heat
By Eli Rosenberg and Abha Bhattarai Photo: Max Whittaker
Surging temperatures across the West Coast this summer are exposing another way that the changing climate threatens the country’s future: the danger it poses to…
Heavy smoke expected to linger above western Montana
Smoke from wildfires across the U.S. West has wafted over large swaths of western Montana on Friday, leading to unhealthy air quality in Missoula and…
How to cope with the existential dread of climate change
By Connie Chang Photo: Brittany Hossea-Small , Getty Images
California was a refuge I always intended to return to. I grew up in the Bay Area in the 1980s and ’90s, then decamped to…
Climate change also has a mental health toll
By Cristina Corujo
For Meg Keene, climate change is something that not only needs to be addressed but is also very difficult to cope with personally. “As someone…
Authorities investigate hundreds of deaths linked to torrid Pacific Northwest weather
By Elinor Aspegren
Authorities from Oregon to British Columbia are investigating hundreds of deaths in connection to the historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest corridor.
Air Pollution and Climate Change Cost the Average American $2500 Per Year
By Aubrey Patti
A report from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) shows that air pollution and climate change cost each American an average of $2,500 per year…
New research finds 1M deaths in 2017 attributable to fossil fuel combustion
By Brandie Jefferson
An interdisciplinary group of researchers from across the globe has comprehensively examined the sources and health effects of air pollution — not just on a…
Ninety degree days occurring earlier and more often. A rising toll of health effects. What does this say about climate change?
By Sabrina Shankman Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
In Boston, there are now twice as many nights when temperatures don’t drop below 70 degrees. In Milton, the earliest 90-degree day now falls two…
‘Wake-up call:’ Climate change could edge Earth’s annual temperature past Paris agreement limits in 5 years
By Doyle Rice Photo: Charlie Reidel
The odds of the planet continuing to warm over the next several years have increased, top meteorologists said Thursday in a new report. In fact,…
Lack of green spaces in under-represented communities is a health crisis that can’t wait
By Brandon Withrow Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images
The global pandemic revealed several gaps in U.S. infrastructure, with one notable problem being a lack of local park access nationwide. As Americans were in…
Global warming is boiling our testicles, suggesting a new animal fertility crisis looms
By Matthew Rozsa Photo: illustration by Salon/Getty Images
Dr. Thomas Price, a senior lecturer of evolution, ecology and behavior at the University of Liverpool, has had a lot of time to consider how…
Climate crisis inflicting huge ‘hidden costs’ on mental health
By Damian Carrington Photo: Delmer Martinez/AP
The climate crisis is damaging the mental health of hundreds of millions of people around the world but the huge costs are hidden, scientists have…
Heat and smog hit low-income communities and people of color hardest, scientists say
By Tik Root Photo: Cassidy Araiza for The Washington Post
As the world warms due to climate change, two studies released this week show that heat exposure and related health issues are already having an…
Is Outdoor Air Pollution Making My Asthma Worse?
By Markham Heid
Kentucky has long been “coal country.” But that’s changing — and it’s good news for people with asthma. In Louisville, the state’s largest city, several…
Climate change impacting health care to the tune of $820B a year
By Veronica Marshall and Jackie Winchester
Climate change is not just affecting the Earth and our air, it’s now affecting health care. A new report finds the financial impact tops $820…
Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year, study finds
By Sarah Kaplan Photo: Alex Wroblewski , Bloomberg News
The smell of hog feces was overwhelming, Elsie Herring said. The breezes that wafted from the hog farm next to her mother’s Duplin County, N.C.,…
As COVID Spikes Again in Alabama, Environmental Injustice Prompts a “Moral Moment”
By Ashira Morris Graphic: Annabel Driussi for Our Daily Planet
In Tuscaloosa’s predominantly Black West End neighborhood, an oil refinery, a Michelin tire plant, and a train yard full of oil cars pollute the air…
KEY RESOURCES
DISEASE
FOOD
HEAT
PLASTICS
POLLUTION
MENTAL HEALTH
MH
If you see no icon in front of an entry, it means the entry covers more than one subject.
MH = Mental Health
Systematic mapping of global research on climate and health: a machine learning review
Systematic mapping of global research on climate and health: a machine learning review
The global literature on the links between climate change and human health is large, increasing exponentially, and it is no longer feasible to collate and synthesise using traditional systematic evidence mapping approaches. We aimed to…
The number of lives that clean energy could save, by U.S. state
The number of lives that clean energy could save, by U.S. state
The United States can achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while creating half a million new jobs, modernizing the energy infrastructure, and avoiding hundreds of thousands of needless deaths, according to the comprehensive Net Zero…
Systematic mapping of global research on climate and health: a machine learning review
Systematic mapping of global research on climate and health: a machine learning review
By Prof Lea Berrang-Ford, PhD 07/13/21
The global literature on the links between climate change and human health is large, increasing exponentially, and it is no longer feasible to collate and synthesise using traditional systematic evidence mapping approaches. We aimed to…
MORE NEWS
An unexpected side effect of climate change? More stillbirths
An unexpected side effect of climate change? More stillbirths
By Matthew Rozsa Photo: Salon/Getty Images 5/25/21
Update: This story has been updated to include responses from the research team behind the paper. Climate change is perhaps the greatest existential threat that humanity has ever faced — and as environmental research accumulates, we keep…
US Health Costs from Climate Change, Fossil Fuel Pollution Top $820B a Year
US Health Costs from Climate Change, Fossil Fuel Pollution Top $820B a Year
Photo: Chris LeBoutillier 5/25/21
New NRDC report synthesizes dozens of scientific research papers and is among the first to tally a broad financial toll on public health from climate-change-driven extreme weather, unprecedented heat waves, spikes in air pollution and…
Health Costs of Air Pollution and Climate Change Exceed $800 Billion
Health Costs of Air Pollution and Climate Change Exceed $800 Billion
By Harun Asad 5/24/21
In a new report by The Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Wisconsin Health Professionals for Climate Action, it is estimated that the health costs of air…
Unless policy shifts, climate change puts human health at risk, finds RTI study
Unless policy shifts, climate change puts human health at risk, finds RTI study
By WRAL TechWire 5/24/21
A new study from RTI International projects global chronic hunger unless policy is put in place to combat the negative effects that climate change could have on the availability and access to nutritious food. About…
Early research suggests climate change could lead to more stillbirths
Early research suggests climate change could lead to more stillbirths
5/24/21
Scientists are investigating whether rising global temperatures may lead to more stillbirths, saying further study is needed on the subject as climates change.
How Cutting Methane Emissions Can Move the Needle on Climate Change
How Cutting Methane Emissions Can Move the Needle on Climate Change
By Lindsay Maizland Photo: Florion Goga/Reuters 5/21/21
Cutting methane emissions is a cost-effective and relatively quick way to limit global temperature rise, according to a new United Nations–backed report. Only in the past decade have scientists been able to estimate the amount…
How Hospitals Can Help Patients and the Planet
How Hospitals Can Help Patients and the Planet
By Tatiana Schlossberg Photo: John Minchillo/Associated Press 5/12/21
As climate change moves from a model of the future to the reality of the present, health care systems across the country are facing a difficult set of questions. What are doctors supposed to do…
Reducing methane is crucial for protecting climate and health, and it can pay for itself – so why aren’t more companies doing it?
Reducing methane is crucial for protecting climate and health, and it can pay for itself – so why aren’t more companies doing it?
By Drew Shindell 5/7/21
Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is a larger climate problem than the world anticipates, and cutting its emissions will be crucial to slow global warming, a new United Nations report warns. The greenhouse…
Climate Anxiety Makes Good Sense
Climate Anxiety Makes Good Sense
By Bill McKibben Photo: Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty 5/5/2021
Even as we begin to emerge from the stress of the pandemic year, mental-health professionals are noting a steady uptick in a different form of anxiety—the worry over climate change and the future that it…
Opinion: Mental health and climate change are intertwined. Here’s how.
Opinion: Mental health and climate change are intertwined. Here’s how.
By Wael Al-Delaimy Photo: Denis Farrell 4/23/21
Climate change, refugees and mental health: Why should we care? Climate change is scientifically documented beyond reasonable doubt, is getting worse, and is a threat to our existence as humans as well as our planet…
