The Health Impact of Climate Change

As with any bill jerked around for half a year in the democratic process and packed with side-deals, last week’s momentous health care legislation has its perks and its flaws. There's still no public option, but recent college graduates will soon be able to ride their parents’ insurance until they turn 26. Meanwhile, the pro-choice movement made no headway when it comes to a woman's right to have an abortion--if anything, they lost ground.
 
Still, it’s a huge victory for the Obama administration, and some environmentally-inclined Democrats are already wondering what’s next on the docket. Optimists are putting climate legislation on the table—something that’s far more closely linked to our health and health care than anyone has yet been willing to admit.
 
Climate change, or the physical effects of global warming, has been cited as a major threat to human health by a number of organizations, including the World Health Organization, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But according to a study by a strategic communications expert whose focus is on science and health, “The New York Times and the Washington Post have mentioned public health consequences in fewer than 5 percent of articles about climate change.”
 
No one’s making the connection—at least not publicly. Is it too much of a political leap for our partisan brains?
 
The EPA has said that “climate change is expected to bring a few benefits to health, including fewer deaths due to exposure to cold.” But wait for it. Wait for it. “Nonetheless, the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] has concluded that, overall (globally), negative climate-related health impacts are expected to outweigh positive health impacts during this century.”
 
WHO has said that “the overall health effects of a changing climate are likely to be overwhelmingly negative. Climate change affects the fundamental requirements for health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.” And the CDC says that higher pollution production is likely to increase allergic and respiratory diseases, and ecosystem shifts will prompt migration of animal hosts that cause diseases such as Lyme disease and Hantavirus, a flu-like disease spread by rodents.
 
Yet most scientists are reluctant to give public support to something as politically-charged as health care reform--it would take a knock at their perceived credibility. Even though they are some of the most informed individuals on the health impact of climate change, current social standards make it untenable for them to come out as full-on activists for legislation. In its 2007 report, the IPCC does vaguely reference the increasing need for the changing environment to play a role in conversations about health, but not in any pointed way. They fail to advocate any specific health care policies.
 
On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised to see American health care following other industries in implementing “green” initiatives, complete with everything from deceptive green washing--like Fiji Water's dubious "saving the rainforest" campaign--to well-intentioned, if not climate-savvy, initiatives, like Belgium Brewing Company giving its employees bikes to cut back on emissions. Of course, this will do little to address the nexus between climate change and our health.
 
But forgetting our health for a minute, the possibility of a comprehensive climate bill might be too much to ask. Two days before the climate bill passed the House late last June, 22 Democratic senators sent a letter to Obama, encouraging climate land energy legislation for this year. It’s a good start, but it is still highly unlikely that climate legislation will make it through any time soon, or even during this presidential term.
 
David Roberts at Grist recently wrote: “Tell you what, though: pass the nation's first climate bill alongside health care reform and Obama's Dem majority will take its place beside FDR's as American history's most consequential. ... It's a nice thought—even nicer, some might argue, than winning the next election.”
 
Read more from YPNation on climate change and clean energy options.
 
(Photo credit: NikoLang; C.C. 3.0)