Before you do anything else, you might like a difficult Washington Post quiz…

Health

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.”

Flooding, heat events, starvation, fires, more infectious disease, drought, unsafe drinking water and less access to food are clearly bad for people’s health! Pictures of polar bears on shrinking ice floes grab at our heartstrings, but this is about our grandchildren, our neighbors, and our friends. In 2009 the prestigious British medical Journal, The Lancet got it exactly right in calling climate change “the biggest global health threat of this century”.

Today’s clinicians see the toll climate change is taking on the health, safety, and well-being of our patients and our communities.  We see our patients and our grandchildren wheezing and coughing when smoke from wildfires pollutes our air.  All over the world including the US, we see excess deaths from heat events, and destruction and death related to flooding and excess rain. And the twin sibling of climate change, air pollution, has been associated with 8-10 excess deaths on the planet today. Climate change and air pollution share the same root cause (using fossil fuel to create energy), but while impacts of climate change are baked into the atmosphere for decades almost no matter what we do, the positive impacts of cleaner air accrue very quickly!

While there have been several previous “mass extinctions” on earth, this is the first of them that is “anthropogenic”(ie, created by human activity). A partial list of consequences of climate change and air pollution includes lung cancer, chronic lung disease, asthma, heart disease, increased premature death, ER visits, and hospitalizations, school and work absenteeism, violence, depression, suicide, substance abuse, increased infant mortality and decreased cognitive development of children, and deaths and injuries related to floods, draughts, heat events, and other extreme weather events and expansion of infectious disease. These consequences are not evenly distributed among people. Many are most common in impoverished and minority communities, the very young, the very old, pregnant women, and people with pre-existing heart and lung conditions.

Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines, said “Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.”  There is time to avoid the worst, and our hope is that having a better understanding of the human health impacts of climate change and air pollution will create the collective will, the energy, and the commitment to respond to this crises with the depth, breadth, and decisiveness that it requires. There is simply no time to waste.

CURRENT NEWS

Two grim reports on global climate efforts highlight increased fossil fuel subsidies, ill health

By Seth Borenstein 11/15/23
Humanity’s fight to curb climate change is failing in dozens of ways with people getting sicker and dying as the world warms and the fossil fuels causing it get more subsidies, according to two global…
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Global heat deaths could quadruple if action is not taken on climate change, study finds

By Lucas Thompson 11/15/23
Global heat deaths are projected to increase by 370% if action is not taken to limit the effects of global warming, according to a study published Tuesday in The Lancet, a medical journal. If average…
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Health Risks Linked to Climate Change Are Getting Worse, Experts Warn

By Delger Erdenesanaa 11/14/23
Climate change continues to have a worsening effect on health and mortality around the world, according to an exhaustive report published on Tuesday by an international team of 114 researchers. One of the starkest findings…
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Climate change is putting the health of billions at risk

By Zoya Teirstein 11/14/23
Eight years ago, the medical journal the Lancet began compiling the latest research on how climate change affects human health. It was the first coordinated effort to highlight scientific findings on the health consequences of…
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Health experts say world needs to end fossil fuel use as new report finds a rise in climate-related mortality

By Rachel Ramirez 11/14/23
The climate crisis is carrying a mounting health toll that is set to put even more lives at risk without bold action to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels, a new report from more than 100…
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Climate change, fossil fuels hurting people’s health, says new global report

By Alejandra Borunda 11/14/23
Burning fossil fuels has driven climate change, and now climate change is costing people their health and increasingly their lives, says a new report from the prestigious medical journal the Lancet. The eighth annual Lancet…
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Opinion: How climate research is polluted by fossil fuel money — and how to fix it

By Alexander Rabin and Caren Solomon 11/07/23
When Sultan Al Jaber, the president-designate of COP28, unveiled plans for a first-ever Day of Health at the upcoming United Nations-sponsored climate summit, he noted his “resolute” determination to “address the challenges posed to health…
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Five ways climate change makes it harder for doctors to help their patients

By Neha Pathak 11/02/23
urns from contact with hot pavement can be difficult to treat and can take a long time to heal. Dr. Joanne Leovy, a family physician who has practiced in Las Vegas, Nevada, for nearly 22…
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EPA to Fund Studies of Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Agriculture

By Liza Gross 10/30/23
The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday $8 million in new research funding to understand how the toxic compounds known as “forever chemicals” are affecting plants and animals in agricultural, rural and tribal communities. The…
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Climate change is our greatest health crisis. The same investments can often address both threats

By Vanessa Kerry and Paul Hudson 10/20/23
We are living in a climate emergency. Climate-related disasters have surged five-fold over the past 50 years, impacting our environments, health, and societal well-being. Let’s be clear: The climate crisis is a health crisis–and it’s…
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A Reality Check About Solar Panel Waste and the Effects on Human Health

By Dan Gearino 10/12/23
Having sat in many community hearings about solar power development, I am used to vivid descriptions of how photovoltaic panels might as well be dripping with harmful substances that will sicken people and livestock.
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Immediate Methane Cuts Can Prevent Nearly a Million Premature Deaths, IEA Says

By Aaron Clark 10/11/23
Immediate and targeted methane cuts from the fossil fuel industry could prevent nearly 1 million premature deaths due to ozone exposure by midcentury, the International Energy Agency said in a report released Wednesday. The reductions…
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KEY RESOURCES

Icons

DISEASE

FOOD

HEALTH

MENTAL HEALTH

PLASTICS

POLLUTION

If you see no icon in front of an entry, it means the entry covers more than one subject.

The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change

11/14/23
The Lancet Countdown is an international research collaboration that independently monitors the evolving impacts of climate change on health, and the emerging health opportunities of climate action. In its eighth iteration, this 2023 report draws…

Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure

10/19/23
The Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure (the Compendium) is a fully referenced compilation of evidence, spanning many scientific and social scientific…

Climate communication: 10 research-backed tips

09/25/23
Emphasize near-term health benefits of climate-change mitigation measures. For example: Everyone will breathe cleaner, healthier air as we transition away from fossil fuels.

The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of fossil fuels

10/26/22
The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown is published as the world confronts profound and concurrent systemic shocks. Countries and health systems continue to contend with the health, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19…

U.S. EPA and WHO partner to protect public health

01/20/22
This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The agreement continues EPA-WHO collaboration on a wide range of specific and crosscutting environment and…

Environmental Health Coalition

11/10/21
Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) works for environmental justice in the San Diego/Tijuana region and throughout California.

EWG’s Tap Water Database

11/09/21
Since 2013, water utilities' testing has found pollutants in Americans' tap water, according to an EWG drinking water quality analysis of more than 31 million state water records.

The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.

11/02/21
ProPublica’s analysis of five years of modeled EPA data identified more than 1,000 toxic hot spots across the country and found that an estimated 250,000 people living in them may be exposed to levels of…

Lancet Countdown: Policy brief for the United States Of America

10/20/21
This fifth annual Policy Brief is supported by a diverse group of health experts from over 70 institutions, organizations, and centers who recognize that climate change is first and foremost a health crisis. It uses…

Systematic mapping of global research on climate and health: a machine learning review

08/19/21
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…

The number of lives that clean energy could save, by U.S. state

08/11/21
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

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…

Coming Storms: Climate Change And The Rising Threat To America’s Coastal Seniors

03/21/21
A new Climate Central sea-level-rise analysis identifies the assisted living and nursing homes at risk in five states. Experts say waiting to evacuate during storms is not the answer.

Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis

01/20/21
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1.  Policy.  Our Nation has an abiding commitment to empower…

WHO global strategy on health, environment and climate change

10/01/20
The burden of disease attributable to the environment is high and persistent, and amounts to 13 million deaths each year (one quarter of all deaths), and further health concerns are posed by global challenges such…

Global risk of deadly heat

10/01/20
Climate change can increase the risk of conditions that exceed human thermoregulatory capacity.

Raising Awareness of the Health Impacts of Coal Plant Pollution

07/30/20
In 2000, 2004 and again in 2010, the Clean Air Task Force issued studies based on a methodology and model created by Abt Associates, U.S EPA’s own health benefits consultant, based on peer-reviewed, published studies…

Investors Join Calls for a Food Revolution to Fight Climate Change

02/01/19
A series of new reports shows how climate change is intertwined with the world’s worsening health, and suggests changes in the global food production system.

The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: The Lancet Commission report

01/27/19
Malnutrition in all its forms, including obesity, undernutrition, and other dietary risks, is the leading cause of poor health globally. In the near future, the health effects of climate change will considerably compound these health…

Global Climate Change and Children’s Health

11/01/15
Climate change poses threats to human health, safety, and security, and children are uniquely vulnerable to these threats.

Climate change and health

02/01/18
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…

Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance

03/01/17
“Things like depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, domestic abuse, all these things tend to go up in the aftermath of a natural disasters,” says psychologist Susan Clayton of the College of Wooster,…

Planting healthy air: Trees, particulate matter pollution and extreme heat

10/31/16
This study from the Nature Conservancy reviews the positive cooling effects of urban trees planting on hot city climates and the quality of their air.

New Lancet report: The Global Syndemic: Uniting Actions to Address Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change

01/28/19
The Lancet has been busy.  Last week, it published a blockbuster report on the need for worldwide dietary changes to improve human health and that of the environment. And here is another post about this…

Weekend reading: The Lancet / EAT Forum report on healthy and sustainable diets

01/25/19
I’ve saved this for Weekend Reading because it will take a weekend to get through it. The report is a blockbuster: 37 authors, 47 pages, 357 references.

Major Health Study Shows Benefits of Combating Climate Change

12/15/18
The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change, by 150 experts from 27 academic institutions and intergovernmental organizations, including the World Health Organization and the World Bank, is blunt: “A rapidly changing climate…

8 ways the climate apocalypse could affect your health

11/30/18
Public health journal The Lancet released a report Wednesday warning that climate change is causing a long list of health risks.

California health systems form alliance to advise on climate change laws, regulations

08/22/18
As deadly fires and record-breaking heat waves ravage California, four of the state's largest health systems joined to form the California Health Care Climate Alliance ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit in September to…

Climate change is making people sick: A U.S. medical report

03/15/17
From rising levels of air pollution to increased water contamination and a widening range for disease-carrying mosquitoes, climate change is making people sick, a coalition of 11 US medical groups said Wednesday.

MORE NEWS

Vanessa Kerry Wants the World to Recognize Climate Health Impacts

By Kendra Pierre-Louis   09/19/23  
On Dec. 3 in Dubai, the United Nations’ major climate change conference will host its first-ever day devoted entirely to the impacts of climate change on health, during COP28. It’s a timely addition in a…
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A medical toolkit for climate resiliency is built on the latest epidemiology and ER best practices

By Danish Bajwa   09/05/23  
Harvard University’s Chan School of Public Health has developed a Climate Resiliency Toolkit to aid emergency rooms and clinics with protocols for robust medical care during climate emergencies, based on the assumption that they now…
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Report highlights climate change impact on physical, mental health in tri-county area

By KATU Staff   08/02/23  
A new report highlights the impact climate change is having on our physical and mental health. The Regional Climate and Health Monitoring Report looked specifically at the tri-county region -- Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.
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Climate change impacts health, gender equality, economic growth and food insecurity: Report

The Hindu Bureau   08/01/23  
Climate change impacts various aspects of United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including health, education, poverty reduction, economic growth, gender equality, besides exacerbating food insecurity and malnutrition, according to a report presented during the ongoing…
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Climate change and skin cancer: urgent call for action

08/01/23  
Cases of skin cancer in the UK are at a record high, according to a Cancer Research UK (London, UK) report published on July 7, 2023. Approximately 17 500 people are diagnosed with skin cancer every…
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As climate change leads to more and wetter storms, cholera cases are on the rise

By Blanca Begert, Grist   08/01/23  
In early 2022, nearly 200,000 Malawians were displaced after two tropical storms struck the southeastern part of Africa barely a month apart. Sixty-four people died. Amid an already-heavy rainy season, the storms Ana and Gombe…
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Cases of Tick-Borne Illnesses Are on the Rise. Some Experts Believe Climate Change is the Cause

By Zoya Teirstein   07/28/23  
In 2022, doctors recorded the first confirmed case of tick-borne encephalitis virus acquired in the United Kingdom.
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Rural Americans find little escape from climate change

By Patrick Boyle   07/13/23  
At a nursery outside St. Paul, Oregon, 38-year-old farm worker Sebastian Francisco Perez collapsed while moving irrigation pipes on a summer afternoon in 2021 when temperatures reached 104 degrees. Perez died of cardiovascular and respiratory…
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Climate change: mechanisms of action on health

07/12/23  
With catastrophic droughts, historic floodings and heatwaves, air pollution episodes, and giant forest fires affecting populations across the globe, the reality of climate change is undeniable. For decades, researchers have alerted us to the impacts…
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Climate-Related Health Risks Among Workers: Who is at Increased Risk?

By Nambi Ndugga, Drishti Pillai and Samantha Artiga   06/26/23  
Over the past few years, a plethora of research has linked climate change to adverse health outcomes around the world. People may be exposed to climate-related health risks through a variety of pathways, including through…
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Climate change threatens human health: Urgent action needed to address inequities and reduce carbon footprint

By Pooja Toshniwal Paharia   06/22/23  
Climate change has been identified as a serious hazard to human health by the World Health Organization (WHO). Climate justice is inextricably linked to social, mental, and physical health and accessibility to healthcare facilities and…
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WHO and Global Citizen sign partnership to promote health, fight inequity and address health-related risks of climate change

06/22/23  
WHO and international advocacy organization Global Citizen today signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on joint global advocacy initiatives aimed at promoting and protecting health for all people over the next three years.
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Smoke brings a warning: There’s no escaping climate’s threat to health

By Dan Diamond , Joshua Partlow, Brady Dennis and Emmanuel Felton   06/07/23  
The cloud of smoke inundating the East Coast on Wednesday — fueled by more than 400 active fires burning across Canada, with more than half of them considered “out of control” — underscored how climate…
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Can Hospitals Turn Into Climate Change Fighting Machines?

By Joanne Kenen   06/06/23  
On the grounds of the University of California San Diego health system, cacti and succulents thrive where water-hogging grass once lived. Patches of bare earth await replanting or a blanket of mulch. Recycled “grey” water…
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Human Health Is Suffering Because of Climate Change

By Jillian McKoy and Jessica Colarossi   05/31/23  
When people hear the words climate change, many might picture a lonesome polar bear on a melting ice cap. This makes sense—type the words “climate change” in a Google Image search and a dozen photos…
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Climate Change and Health Equity

05/18/23  
Climate change refers to a significant change in the Earth’s climate for an extended period of time. This includes changes in global temperatures and precipitation patterns, which can influence extreme weather and natural disasters. While…
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Oil and gas health impacts cost $77 billion per year, study finds

By Ayurella Horn-Muller   05/10/23  
Air pollution from U.S. oil and natural gas production causes roughly $77 billion in health impacts nationwide every year, while also contributing to thousands of early deaths and health flare-ups, a new study finds...
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Health Impacts of Climate Change on Children in the United States: EPA Report

04/25/23  
The signs of climate change are all around us, and children are uniquely vulnerable to its impacts. Climate change-related impacts in childhood can have lifelong consequences due to effects on learning, physical health, and housing…
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‘In every breath we take’: How climate change impacts pollen allergies

By Samantha Harrington   04/19/23  
When spring arrives, as many as 81 million Americans experience seasonal allergies. And as the planet warms and more carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere, climate change is lengthening pollen seasons and making them…
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Want to protect your health? Start by protecting Indigenous land.

By Lyric Aquino   04/12/23  
By protecting Indigenous territories in the Amazon, more than 15 million respiratory and cardiovascular-related illnesses, like asthma and lung cancer, could be avoided each year and almost $2 billion dollars in health costs saved. That’s…
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The Willow Project Would Be a Public Health Crisis for Alaska

By Yessenia Funes   03/06/23  
Siqiniq Maupin, an Iñupiaq person born in Alaska’s North Slope city of Utqiagvik but raised in Fairbanks, has known too many people whose lives were cut short by cancer or suicide. Across the state, Alaska…
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Seattle hospital puts patients under without overheating the planet

By John Ryan   02/21/23  
Doctors at Seattle Children’s Hospital say they’ve managed to tame one of the hospital’s biggest environmental impacts. The gases used to sedate patients are extremely powerful at trapping heat and disrupting the global climate.
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Will global warming make temperature less deadly?

By Harry Stevens   02/16/23  
The scientific paper published in the June 2021 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change was alarming. Between 1991 and 2018, the peer-reviewed study reported, more than one-third of deaths from heat exposure were linked…
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Climate change is the next big threat to eye health. Here’s why

Dr. Princess Ifeoma Ike   02/08/23  
Climate change has a significant impact on our health, as well as the stability of healthcare systems, governments, and local communities. It is a global emergency that affects us all on a personal, community, national,…
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Improved Asthma Symptoms, Air Pollution Linked to Electric Vehicle Use in California

By Pearl Steinzor   02/08/23  
Drivers choosing zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), otherwise known as battery electric, plug-in hybrid, or hydrogen fuel cell cars, have been increasing in California, with efforts to tackle climate change. However, little is known about the…
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Valley fever could spread from Southwest, driven by climate change, researchers warn: ‘New cases emerging’

By Melissa Rudy   02/02/23  
For most people who are suffering from fever, cough and fatigue, the likely culprits are cold, flu or COVID-19.
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How the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity Can Respond to the Health Threats of the Climate Crisis

By Jill Rosenthal and Marquisha Johns   01/30/23  
Top medical journals have described the climate crisis as the “greatest threat” to global public health.1 Its impacts include respiratory and allergy-related illnesses; heart disease and cancer; mental health complications; food-, insect-, and water-borne diseases;…
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Mass General tries performance reports to cut greenhouse gas use in anesthesia

By Martha Bebinger   01/26/23  
Dr. Sam Smith was on call at a Santa Barbara hospital in January 2018 when mudslides killed 23 people. Over the next few years, Smith, an anesthesiologist, helped treat patients suffering injuries or illnesses tied…
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Air quality can affect health. Climate change is worsening both.

By Jan Ellen Spiegel   01/22/23  
Sandra Rapp has had breathing problems for at least 20 years. She was a heavy smoker — a habit she gave up 30 years ago — spent many years working in manufacturing and has lived…
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How Does Climate Change Affect Our Health?

By Eglė Krištopaitytė   01/20/23  
2022 was the world's 6th-warmest year on record since 1880, according to the latest report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Millions of Americans have experienced the consequences of climate change firsthand, as the…
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Study Says Climate Change Fear-Mongering Severely Impacting Children’s Mental Health

By Kevin Killough   01/15/23  
Since environmental activist Greta Thunberg gave her “how dare you” speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in 2019 when she was 17, young people have been drawn into a debate about climate change.
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Older adults can be particularly vulnerable during weather disasters

By YCC Team   01/03/23  
It’s an urgent issue as extreme weather grows more common. The post Older adults can be particularly vulnerable during weather disasters appeared first on Yale Climate Connections. ...
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How Does Deforestation Lead To Human Diseases?

By Andrew Wight   12/07/22  
Colombian disease ecologist Juliana Hoyos is part of a multidisciplinary team studying the links between deforestation and diseases like Chagas disease and American cutaneous leishmaniasis.
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When health inequities and climate disasters collide

By Ayurella Horn-Miller   12/06/22  
Researchers released a toolkit Tuesday designed to help free and low-cost clinics in the U.S. to better deal with heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires and floods in underserved communities. The big picture: Despite treating those most…
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Harvard team launches climate resilience toolkit for front-line health care clinics

By Sharon Udasin   12/06/22  
A team of Harvard University public health experts has launched an initiative to help front-line medical clinics protect their patients from climate risks. The project, called the Climate Resilience for Frontline Clinics Toolkit, provides clinical…
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Health must be front and centre in the COP27 climate change negotiations

11/06/22  
On the eve of the pivotal climate talks at COP27, WHO issues a grim reminder that the climate crisis continues to make people sick and jeopardizes lives and that health must be at the core…
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As heat wave grips the West, millions in California are urged to set thermostats to 78 degrees to conserve electricity today

By Aya Elamroussi   09/01/22  
An intense heat wave will blanket much of the West this week, prompting officials in California to urge residents to slash their energy consumption for the second day in a row to avoid straining the…
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Nature can affect human well-being in many more ways than you think

By Allyson Chiu   08/05/22  
Humans have long benefited from nature’s offerings. But beyond being an essential source of food, water and raw materials, the natural world can contribute to people’s overall well-being through a host of intangible effects —…
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Climate change is eroding a precious resource: sleep

By Alejandra Borunda   05/25/22  
That feeling isn’t just unpleasant. Years of research show that sleep deprivation can ramp up heart disease risk, intensify mood disorders, slow one’s ability to learn, and much more—problems with big personal, societal, and economic…
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‘A Planetary Threat’: Pollution Responsible For 9 Million Deaths Each Year, Study Finds

By Robert Hart   05/17/22  
TOPLINE Pollution was responsible for more than 9 million deaths around the world in 2019, according to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health on Tuesday, equivalent to one in every six, a growing global…
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Cutting air pollution from fossil fuels would save 50,000 lives a year, study says

By Steven Mufson   05/16/22  
Eliminating air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels would prevent more than 50,000 premature deaths and provide more than $600 billion in health benefits in the United States every year, according to a new study…
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The Tick That Causes a Meat Allergy Is on the Move

By Livia Albeck-Ripka   05/13/22  
One night in 2008, Deborah Fleshman awoke in her bed to find that her legs had turned beetroot red. Welts, some a foot wide, had appeared along her torso.
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Cancer-causing gas emission spikes continue at refineries

By Sean Reilly   05/12/22  
On its website, Marathon Petroleum Corp. touts a commitment to the environment that transcends run-of-the-mill regulatory compliance.
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Fossil Fuels Aren’t Just Harming the Planet. They’re Making Us Sick

By Liza Gross   05/12/22  
For years, researchers have warned that chemical pollutants tied to fossil fuels have become so pervasive that they would be impossible for anyone to avoid.
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When will ‘economic growth’ account for environmental costs?

By David Shearman   05/12/22  
Human health and the natural environment are indivisible. A recent article in the journal The Lancet reminds us that “economic decisions on the environment have major impacts on human health, and health and wellness depend…
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The Impact of Climate Change on Our Health and Health Systems

By Shanoor Seervai, Lovisa Gustafsson and Melinda K. Abrams   05/04/22  
Hundreds of millions of people across the globe are experiencing the impact of climate change. In the United States, hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and flooding — all likely intensified by a warming atmosphere —…
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Yes, you’re consuming microplastics —

By Andrea Michelson   04/30/22  
Scientists are certain that humans around the world are ingesting tiny pieces of plastic on a regular basis. Now, they are seeking to understand how the wide distribution of microplastics affects human health and the…
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Studies find microplastics in human lungs, blood stream; scientists investigating possible health risks

04/30/22  
Scientists from the Netherlands and the U.K. recently identified microplastics deep in the lungs of some surgical patients and in the blood of anonymous donors. Researchers say that it's possible to take in these particles…
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Studies find microplastics in human lungs, blood stream; scientists investigating possible health risks

04/30/22  
Scientists from the Netherlands and the U.K. recently identified microplastics deep in the lungs of some surgical patients and in the blood of anonymous donors. Researchers say that it's possible to take in these particles…
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California AG subpoenas Exxon for details on role in global plastic pollution

By Valerie Volcovici   04/29/22  
California's attorney general announced on Thursday he issued a subpoena to ExxonMobil (XOM.N) for information on its role in causing the global plastic waste crisis.
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