77 Health Organizations Call for Climate Action to Fight Public Health Emergency

More than 70 leading public health groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, agree that the climate crisis is also a health emergency.
So far 77 organizations representing nurses, doctors, hospitals, volunteers and public health professionals have signed on to The Call to Action on Climate, Health and Equity: A Policy Action Agenda, released Monday. The agenda urges government, business and community leaders to take a series of actions designed to promote health and fight climate change.
Climate change is a health emergency. The Climate, Health, and Equity Policy Action Agenda calls for climate soluti… https://t.co/jIH6d3iGl0— AMA (@AMA)1561399201.0
"We are here today to declare that climate change is a health emergency. Climate change is already harming the health, safety and wellbeing of every American living today and if it is not addressed, will bring untold harm to all our children and grandchildren," former Acting Surgeon General and Retired U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak said in a transcript of a press call emailed to EcoWatch.
On the call, medical professionals shared how climate change was already impacting the health of their patients. Pediatrician and incoming Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health Dr. Aparna Bole explained how worsening air quality linked to global warming was increasing the risks faced by her patients in a Cleveland, Ohio community where one in five children has asthma.
"In my community, burning fossil fuels contribute to not just asthma exacerbations but also poor birth outcomes like low birth weight and prematurity, both risk factors for infant mortality. Even prenatal exposure leads to neurodevelopmental delays that negatively impact school readiness, which is an important foundation for a child's academic success," Bole said.
Meanwhile, Gundersen Health System CEO Emeritus Jeffrey Thompson shared how extreme weather events like hurricanes and wildfires were making it harder for hospitals to care for their patients.
"In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, many emergency medicine physicians throughout the U.S. were forced to ration critical IV fluids after the hurricane damaged a major producer of IV bags in Puerto Rico. This shortage persisted for months and into flu season. Imagine having to tell a worried mother that you couldn't give her child fluids that could help him," Thompson said.
The group outlined six major priorities for policy makers to fight climate change and improve health outcomes.
- Meet and ramp up Paris agreement commitments.
- Transition away from coal, oil and natural gas and towards renewable energy.
- Encourage a shift from driving to biking, walking or public transportation while shifting to zero-carbon transit alternatives.
- Support sustainable agriculture and protect green spaces.
- Make sure all communities have safe and sustainable supplies of drinking water.
- Ensure a "just transition" for workers and communities impacted by climate change.
The group also encouraged health organizations to take climate action by engaging with calls like this one, integrating climate responses into public health plans and assisting vulnerable communities in responding to climate impacts.
Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University Director Ed Maibach told the Associated Press that the health organizations' statement could shift some Americans' image of climate change as "primarily as a threat to things in the environment, like polar bears."
"It's incredibly helpful when health professionals point out the actual reality of the situation, point out that this is also a threat to our health and well-being now ... and it's likely to get worse, much worse, if we don't take action to address it," he said.
The call also comes as climate change is emerging as a major issue in the 2020 election, something Lushniak alluded to in introducing it.
"[W]e are well aware that we are initiating this effort at an important moment when our Nation's attention is increasingly focused on the most important issues we face and how we should address them," he said. "Our goal is to influence this national conversation at this critical moment. We are providing our leaders at all levels and with a meaningful path forward."
The call was released the same week that Democratic candidates will engage in their first debate, the Associated Press pointed out. It shares priorities with the climate policy proposed by candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, the Associated Press concluded, since it urges a transition away from fossil fuels without endorsing an outright ban on fracking.
"The best time to declare a climate emergency was 30 years ago; the second best time is now."@extinctionr @jeremycorbyn @gretathunberg #ExtinctionRebellion#CitizensAssembly#ZeroCarbon2025#TellTheTruth https://t.co/KYDYR4EG2e
— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) May 2, 2019
By Julián García Walther
One morning in January, I found myself 30 feet up a tall metal pole, carrying 66 pounds of aluminum antennas and thick weatherproofed cabling. From this vantage point, I could clearly see the entire Punta Banda Estuary in northwestern Mexico. As I looked through my binoculars, I observed the estuary's sandy bar and extensive mudflats packed with thousands of migratory shorebirds frenetically pecking the mud for food.
There are currently few Motus stations in Mexico, leading to a large information gap. Julián García Walther / CC BY-ND
Red knots and many other shorebirds travel thousands of miles from breeding grounds in the Arctic (left) to nonbreeding grounds in Latin America (right). Julián García Walther / CC BY-ND
Motus stations require a high vantage point that overlooks estuaries. Julián García Walther / CC BY-ND
Any bird with a transmitter will be picked up if it flies within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of a Motus station. Julián García Walther / CC BY-ND
<h2>Tagging Birds</h2><p>The stations alone can't detect these animals. The final step, which will happen in the coming months, is to catch birds and tag them. To do this, our team will set up a soft, spring-loaded net called a whoosh net in sandy areas where the red knots rest above the high-tide line. When birds walk past the net, the crew leader will release the trigger, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwMiA2iqVc0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">safely trapping the birds with the net</a>.</p>WhooshNetCapture.MTS
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6440038cdc58961906f5fa164b457688"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vwMiA2iqVc0?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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<div id="25965" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6116a1c2b1b913ad51c3ea576f2e196c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1366827205427425289" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING: Rep @FrankPallone just released his CLEAN Future Act — which he claims to be an ambitious bill to combat… https://t.co/M7nR0es196</div> — Friends of the Earth (Action) (@Friends of the Earth (Action))<a href="https://twitter.com/foe_us/statuses/1366827205427425289">1614711974.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="189f0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="aa31bacec80d88b49730e8591de5d26d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1366863402912657416" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The CLEAN Future Act "fails to grasp the fundamental truth of fighting climate change: We must stop extracting and… https://t.co/yREn6Qx9tn</div> — Food & Water Watch (@Food & Water Watch)<a href="https://twitter.com/foodandwater/statuses/1366863402912657416">1614720605.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Pixabay / Simi Luft
<p><span>Until recently, measuring these trees meant scaling their 80 meter high trunks with a tape measure. Now, a team of scientists from University College London and the University of Maryland uses advanced laser scanning, to create 3D maps and calculate the total mass.</span></p><p>The results are striking: suggesting the trees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">may be as much as 30% larger than earlier measurements suggested.</a> Part of that could be due to the additional trunks the Redwoods can grow as they age, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a process known as reiteration</a>.</p>New 3D measurements of large redwood trees for biomass and structure. Nature / UCL
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