Health And Climate Change: An Urgent Need For Action

The human face of climate change is its impact on our health. Higher temperatures intensify air pollution and respiratory illness. Changing weather patterns lead to drought and then famine, while increasing rains in other areas will create the breeding ground for disease and pandemics. While the policy changes needed to blunt climate change are surely substantial, the cost of ignoring the science behind climate change will be felt through its harmful effects on our health. Recently, the CDC cancelled its Climate and Health Summit out of fear of retribution from the Trump administration. Working with Al Gore and others, Harvard worked to revive the meeting, which was held in Atlanta on February 16.  This meeting reminded us that universities have a unique responsibility that we ensure a platform for key scientific issues that have a meaningful effect on people’s health.  Climate change is one such critical issue. A century ago, one in three children died before age five. That number has been cut by 90 percent because of global investments in public health. Climate change, unchecked, puts these gains, and lives, at risk. Weather shifts from climate change will change the availability and reduce the nutritional content of food. The levels of protein and crucial micronutrients in key staple crops will drop, exposing billions of the world’s poorest people to worsening malnutrition. The gains we have made in saving the lives of children are fragile – and...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news