The climate crisis is not just about climate change
I have been studying the climate change negotiations since the 1990s and been participating in UN climate change meetings since 2009. One thing is apparent - the climate crisis relates to many aspects of our lives. One important area is health. Here is an article that addresses that issue...
The Hidden Health Costs of Climate Change
Across the U.S., billion-dollar climate events are overwhelming emergency departments.
Read in TIME: https://apple.news/AsSH2ZdrTSEilk8WTw3ysYg
A while ago I watched a talk about the "hidden costs" of the Climate Crisis and pollution, specifically the effect on health that industrial and automotive emissions have on public health and long-term consequences of inhalation of these pollutants. This articles really reminded me of this and really illustrates how interconnected the climate is with all parts of our society. Overall, it seems so unreasonable that despite all the tremendous impacts that the climate crisis has had on our society that we have yet to come to a consensus that we must combat this crisis.
ReplyDeleteThis article goes into depth talking about the possible side effects of the climate crisis. The article touches on some items I generally would have not considered before having read it. Such items include smoke inhalation from wild fires and mold related infections. The article paints a dire picture should we not counteract the climate crisis. I do wonder if such effects would stop within a reasonable amount of time should we reduce greenhouse gases and the temperature before the "no return" time limit climate scientists have placed. Would we still suffer such effects as the wildfires, cyclones, and heatwaves the article says Alaska will endure? Or will we suffer such effects but be spared by a longer list of effects to a more densely populated areas?
ReplyDeleteThis article is about the impact of climate change on people's health. Through analysis of Medicare health records in over 2,000 counties affected by storms from 2011 to 2016, researchers found a significant rise in emergency department visits and mortality rates following climate-related disasters. The article mentioned that policy changes are required as medicare comes from taxpayers, and I very much agree. As the world changes, this research is a reminder of the need to address climate change and the global health impact it will have.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you stated, I think that people aren't realizing and addressing the other problems that come with the issue of climate change. There are other factors at play that are just as important. One being like you said emergency department visits and health care. People and comminutes must be prepared to face action against this issue.
DeleteThe article talks about health effects that can come form the smoke and similar types of those health risks. I think that one other thing about health that climate change can make a difference is the physical health risks. One significant health concern associated with climate change is the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, and floods. These events can lead to injuries, fatalities, and the displacement of communities, placing significant pressure on emergency response and healthcare services. This can take away from other sectors as well as climate change can physically destroy health care places such as hospitals.
ReplyDeleteOther commenters have discussed the health implications this article brings up which people might not associate with climate change. These are largely after-effects of climate-related extreme weather or storms, which are often not counted in reports on the effects of these incidents. Near the end of the article, a few interesting ideas come up. These relate to our perception of the severity of climate-related events. First, not having these long-term effects in our reports makes the effects seem less severe than they are. By neglecting this information, we downplay the role these events play in peoples' lives. Second, the effects of climate change are not felt to the same extent in all places. While this study examined the US, other countries have to deal with similar issues to lesser or greater extents. One of the effects of this is that people in different places will see different effects of climate change, which leads them to come to different conclusions about its severity unless they look for more broad or varied sources of information. I think these things highlight how important it is to make sure the information we consume and produce is accurate and thorough, and that we look outside our immediate surroundings for new perspectives that could add to our understanding of issues like climate change.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree, I think one of the reasons so many people in the US are climate deniers is because a lot of us don't experience the worst effects of climate change, so we have the privilege to pretend it's equally severe in other places and that it's not really a problem. It's kind of the idea that ignorance is privileged bliss.
DeleteThank you for sharing this article. Another part of the hidden cost that is lightly touched on in the article is who actually pays that hidden cost. It is mentioned that developing countries are more likely to face deeper consequences of climate change but that it is also the case at the country and city scale. One great example of this principle being applied is with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in New Orleans. During Hurricane Katrina, the most vulnerable locations for flooding (the low-lands) also happened to be the locations where poor people and African Americans were in. This disproportionate effect of Katrina and its subsequent aid and rebuilding process was a large controversy at the time. I bring up this case as it shows how climate change can affect some people more than others when it will come to climate change-fueled natural disasters in the future. Here are some additional articles about Katrina: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hurricanes-hit-the-poor-the-hardest/
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jstor.org/stable/40034317
https://gnocdc.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/crsrept.pdf
This article provided some good evidence of how climate change directly harms people. I think that as the crisis worsens, we will see people with less resources being affected more strongly by these issues. For instance, you're more likely to get sick from smoke inhalation or get heatstroke if you don't have a house to go inside. Another thing that shocked me about this article was where it said due to greenhouse gases intensifying El Niño creates a 90% likelihood of record breaking global surface temperatures in June. I feel like I just keep hearing about more and more record temperatures, and it's really scary.
ReplyDeleteI think the impacts on more polar regions are what are most concerning. I live in Alaska, and there are already a significant number of wildfires which can seriously impact our summers. If there was a serious increase in acers burned each summer, it would cause serious shutdowns specifically in youth summer activities. While this seems like an insignificant issue, these sports and other activities have a huge positive impact in a relatively isolated state. Furthermore, the current wildfires largely burn uninhabited land and very few of them burn habited areas. An increase in forest fires would increase risk of homes being burned which would disproportionately impact lower income families in Alaska. I think it is imperative that we take action against climate change before places like these are damaged beyond repair. This article talks about some of the unique effects climate change is having on my home as well as steps being taken to mitigate it: https://climate-xchange.org/2020/03/27/local-climate-action-persists-in-alaska/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA0bWvBhBjEiwAtEsoW7QmhOWbsglVSvGt_Sd8FaNegp_2f897rDUI3J-YKj4nL6hCHPqIrhoC5RwQAvD_BwE
ReplyDeleteThis article highlights not only the severe consequences that countless people are paying for through their health and, in some instances, their lives. The author Kluger addresses the statistics of the incomprehensible amount of fatalities that have occurred due to climate change. He also addressed the long-term effects of smoke inhalation and other climate-related events on one's health. Another critical component, while not addressed directly in the article, is that several places worldwide are experiencing weather conditions that they need to be adequately equipped for, causing extreme casualties. As the article addressed, the US is a high-income country capable of responding to extreme unforeseen weather events. Low-income countries may not be able to respond with adequate resources when being hit by weather events like a tropical cyclone, as mentioned in the article, causing the death rate to be much more significant. It is essential not only to reduce the potential casualties of future extreme weather events but also to reduce the rapidly climbing acceleration of wildfires, heat waves, and droughts to take immediate action in the hopes of reducing and repairing the damage that has been caused.
ReplyDeleteI think the impacts that this article mentions is really important. People don't realize nor do people know about climate change harming them directly, heck I didn't even know. I think it's insane that climate change in a few years is going to cause more fatalities than I would have thought. I think the more this becomes an obvious issue the more people will look into it. I feel like right now we all kind of see climate change as like a joke, but when these issues arise I feel like then they are going to do something about it. This also makes me nervous because what if it's too late to fix our mistakes? What are we going to do then? I just wish the older generation knew what they were doing to the planet with fossil fueling and all these industries before they did it, because now their mistakes and problems are left to the younger generations and I feel like it's so big now that we can't stop it. Honestly, I believe the climate is going to get so bad and kill us all one day. I hope people take this more seriously now because it is a real life problem that is not getting any better.
ReplyDeleteHere is an article talking about how climate change is a serious issue and why humans need to look into it more. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/effects-of-climate-change#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20are%20rising%20and,risk%20from%20the%20changing%20climate.
DeleteWe have seen larger and more impactful environmental disasters recently, such as the fires that devastated Hawaii. According and article published by CBS News, the U.S. had a world record $1 billion in damages due to climate related disasters in 2023 alone. This shows that these issues are accelerating in frequency and severity. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-sets-record-for-billion-dollar-natural-disasters-climate-catastrophes-in-2023/
ReplyDeleteI love how you have addressed not only the environmental concerns, but also the health concerns of climate change. This is such an interesting topic as it can go so deep into the systems of our world. One area of health that I would like to address that is indirectly related to climate change is water quality.
ReplyDeleteWater quality: I am from Eastern Oregon originally, and as many know, we are currently in a drought. Many agriculturalists do not have enough water to support their operations and have been forced to sell their land and move. One of the biggest issues that has influenced community member health occurs when wells dry up. Many family friends have had wells dry up, and in an effort to dig deeper for more water, they have found water with high levels of arsenic. High levels of arsenic intake are extremely dangerous to people's health (Well Owners, n.d.). My family was unaware of the issue, until my brother got sick, and we realized that my rural school (that is an hour away from my home) had high levels of arsenic. With my brother's health issues, he cannot drink the water at the school, and my mom does not even allow my sisters and myself to drink from the water either due to the toxicity.
I feel that this is an important component to address in relation to climate change, because so often it is not highlighted although it is such an extreme issue. Linked below, I have shared a resource about the threat of high levels of arsenic in drinking water.
Reference:
Arsenic in Well Water: What You Need to Know. (n.d.). Wellowner.org. Retrieved March 15, 2024, from https://wellowner.org/resources/water-quality/contaminants/arsenic/
Hi Tayleur, I appreciate what you have to say. It is definitely important to look at all of the aspects that climate change affects with natural disasters and just the changes that it creates in general. Often times, it seems like people don't consider the longer term effects of a disaster from a climate related event and it is really important to know about these things. There is so much to change so that we have a better world, but to change, we need to know what is the problem, what are the effects, and what is the scope and I think that this will help more people understand that there is a bigger picture.
DeleteI think that the topic of health in relation to climate change is quite interesting. I had never really considered the strain that climate change related disasters was putting on our healthcare systems and I worry what will happen in the future as these disasters only continue to worsen. To offer another perspective for this argument, I think it's crucial that we look at how many emissions healthcare contribute to climate change every year. Hospitals are in a tricky situation because they need to emphasize cleanliness and proper sanitization, but the way they generally do this, by using an abundance of plastics and one time use products, is quite harmful to the environment and contributes a lot of emissions to climate change. When we consider how much waste is created in hospitals with how much pressure and stress they will continue to be under in coming years, it really proved that we need to be considering healthcare more in relation to climate change.
ReplyDeleteI knew there a lot of environmentally related issues due to climate change. But after reading a few articles, I realized climate change will have a major impact on the health of humans as well. A statistic I found in an article from the world health organization that blew me away was, "Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone" (WHO, 2023). Here is the link to the article. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health I think it's extremely alarming to see that many deaths caused by these factors alone. Things like increasing natural disasters, deaths from rising sea levels, and other climate change related dangers weren't even mentioned in this calculated total. The severity of what we are doing is going to lead a lasting impact not only on the environment, but other human lives as well.
ReplyDelete