Nada Hassanein
Fri, November 26, 2021
Nearly three decades after the world first came together to address climate change, its impact on human health was a focus of talks this month in Glasgow, Scotland.
The 26th meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP26, featured a pavilion that held dozens of events discussing the health threats of climate change. More than 400 health organizations from more than 100 countries signed a letter urging stronger climate change action to protect human health.
But while the new agreement stemming from COP26 pledges to shift away from coal, halt deforestation and cut methane emissions, along with other goals to reduce warming, analysts say it fails to spell out specific adverse health impacts and efforts needed to address them.
The importance of doing so isn't limited to small islands and developing nations – the issue is urgent in the U.S., with communities of color disproportionately at risk.
When it comes to addressing health and climate, experts like Dr. Renee Salas, a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health emergency medicine physician specializing in the link between the two, said equity must be central.
More: People of color face disproportionate harm from climate change, EPA says
“Climate justice is environmental justice, and it’s fundamental for us to take a holistic approach across all sectors, whether it be urban planning or transportation, that their policies have clear health impacts and can either advance equity or hinder it." Salas said.
She said an emergency "triage" approach is needed to provide health protections and resources for America’s communities on the frontlines of climate change.
Related video: Greta Thunberg blasts world leaders for climate change response
"We need to make sure that those who have the most emergent problems are taken care of first," she said. "We have to ensure that health and equity drive our response, in addition to serving as our motivation to act."
Report: Climate change is 'first and foremost' a health crisis
Natasha DeJarnett, an expert on environmental health and professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, was glad COP26 finally featured a health program but said policies and regulations need to catch up to the science.
“We have known that climate is a threat to health for quite some time,” she said, citing reports that found race a primary predictor of the location of hazardous facilities emitting toxins. “We’ve known for several decades that the places that have dirtier air, have more deaths. But we’ve also known that even small decreases in air pollution correspond with significant increases in life expectancy.”
Air pollution and excessive heat are linked to numerous health concerns, including cardiovascular health problems.
More: Climate change, heat waves affect heart health, experts say. Here's why that puts people of color at higher risk.
Environmental activist Lisa Deville, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, said she was happy to see agreements to reduce methane come out of the global conference, but wants stricter methane emission policies at state and local levels that prioritize health.
Funding is needed, she said, for local research efforts to collect baseline pollution levels to guide such policy. Deville said she and her husband have had respiratory issues from the gas flares of oil wells connected to pipelines.
The Dakota Access Pipeline carries oil from Fort Berthold. The reservation is located on the oil-rich Bakken Formation, where a boom in oil and gas brought tribes new wealth – and concerns.
"We’ve been heavily extracted here," said Deville, who is president of the Fort Berthold Protectors of Water and Earth Rights and the EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. "We live right next to flares surrounding our community."
More: COP26 climate deal boosts global emissions pledges but falls short on 1.5 degrees Celsius target
A scholar on climate change and health, Kristie Ebi is a professor at the University of Washington’s Center for Health and the Global Environment. She noted the irony that the most vulnerable communities in the U.S. have contributed the least to climate change in terms of emitting greenhouse gases and suffer the most.
She said a “better culture of preparedness” is key to health equity in the face of climate change. For example, climate assessments have sounded alarms on the vulnerability of coastal hospitals to flooding.
“You’ve got hotspots of particularly vulnerable populations in particularly vulnerable places... It is the people, and it is the infrastructure," Ebi said. “We can’t necessarily stop the flooding. We can’t stop the heat waves but almost all deaths from flooding and heat waves are preventable."
Dr. John Balbus, interim director of the Biden administration's new Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, said he was "energized" by the global summit's focus on climate change as a public health crisis.
"We see ourselves as being a catalyst for action," Balbus said of the new office, tasked with collaborating with federal agencies and divisions to advance equity concerns. "I came away from COP26 really energized to be that connection with communities as much as possible, to make sure their voices are heard and their concerns are met."
Reach Nada Hassanein at nhassanein@usatoday.com or on Twitter @nhassanein_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COP26: Experts say health equity needs focus in climate change fight
Opinion: We all must rise to the challenge of climate change
Fernanda Leite
Fri, November 26, 2021
We’re feeling the impacts of climate change all around us. Rising temperatures are changing our landscapes and livelihoods. The Great Barrier Reef is suffering from thermal stress that contributes to coral bleaching — more than half of the reef's coral cover was lost between 1995 and 2017. In July, several European countries were severely affected by floods. Globally, eight of the world's 10 largest cities are near a coast. And in the United States, almost 40% of the population lives in coastal areas, where sea level plays a role in flooding and land erosion.
Nowhere are climate stressors more obvious than in Texas. Our population is expected to nearly double by 2050, and most of the state has warmed between 0.5 and 1.0 degree Fahrenheit during the past century. We are seeing new diseases spread from tropical areas, and we’re experiencing more extreme weather events such as the winter storm that left two-thirds of Texans without power and almost half without water for an average of more than two days in February.
We need to urgently decrease emissions. And Texas needs a statewide climate adaptation plan.
Rising temperatures are caused primarily by an increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. CO2 levels have been rising steadily for more than 100 years due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels, trapping more heat in our atmosphere and contributing to climate change.
A special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which includes climate scientists from around the world, has said that human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming above preindustrial levels. And global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.
This is precisely one of the goals of the United Nations Climate Change conference, or COP26, which brought world leaders together to tackle climate change. Countries are being asked to set ambitious 2030 emission reduction targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century.
We all need to do our part like a true phase-out of coal, accelerating the switch to electric vehicles and investing in renewable energy. There are positive examples around the world of countries that are heading toward a low-carbon future by embracing solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable energy sources. Texas produces the most wind energy of any state in the United States. The U.S. as a whole has the second-highest installed wind energy capacity in the world after China. A clean energy revolution must continue to happen across America, underscored by the steady expansion of the U.S. renewable energy sector.
Not only will setting ambitious emission reduction targets help with climate change, it will also lead to cleaner and more resilient cities and infrastructure systems. Energy systems with high percentages of renewables — or even decarbonized power grids — are better able to resist shocks than those heavily dependent on fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal.
Extreme weather events such as this year’s winter storm are expected, and we need to adapt our infrastructure to withstand such stressors. And we especially need to take into consideration vulnerable communities, those that already suffer from chronic stressors related to toxic pollution, poverty, food insecurity, mixed immigration status and gentrification. States and communities around the country have begun to prepare for climate change by developing their own climate adaptation plans; we have many examples to follow.
Our world leaders need to leave COP26 with actionable goals and with concrete, meaningful and realistic deadlines. And policymakers and leaders in Texas must do their part and adopt and accelerate measures to combat climate change, addressing energy infrastructure and equitable resilience. Only then will we rise to the challenge of climate change.
Leite is an associate professor and the John A. Focht Centennial Teaching Fellow in Civil Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas. She serves on the leadership of a universitywide grand challenges initiative, Planet Texas 2050.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Opinion: We all must rise to the challenge of climate change
Fernanda Leite
Fri, November 26, 2021
We’re feeling the impacts of climate change all around us. Rising temperatures are changing our landscapes and livelihoods. The Great Barrier Reef is suffering from thermal stress that contributes to coral bleaching — more than half of the reef's coral cover was lost between 1995 and 2017. In July, several European countries were severely affected by floods. Globally, eight of the world's 10 largest cities are near a coast. And in the United States, almost 40% of the population lives in coastal areas, where sea level plays a role in flooding and land erosion.
Nowhere are climate stressors more obvious than in Texas. Our population is expected to nearly double by 2050, and most of the state has warmed between 0.5 and 1.0 degree Fahrenheit during the past century. We are seeing new diseases spread from tropical areas, and we’re experiencing more extreme weather events such as the winter storm that left two-thirds of Texans without power and almost half without water for an average of more than two days in February.
We need to urgently decrease emissions. And Texas needs a statewide climate adaptation plan.
Rising temperatures are caused primarily by an increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. CO2 levels have been rising steadily for more than 100 years due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels, trapping more heat in our atmosphere and contributing to climate change.
A special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which includes climate scientists from around the world, has said that human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming above preindustrial levels. And global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.
This is precisely one of the goals of the United Nations Climate Change conference, or COP26, which brought world leaders together to tackle climate change. Countries are being asked to set ambitious 2030 emission reduction targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century.
We all need to do our part like a true phase-out of coal, accelerating the switch to electric vehicles and investing in renewable energy. There are positive examples around the world of countries that are heading toward a low-carbon future by embracing solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable energy sources. Texas produces the most wind energy of any state in the United States. The U.S. as a whole has the second-highest installed wind energy capacity in the world after China. A clean energy revolution must continue to happen across America, underscored by the steady expansion of the U.S. renewable energy sector.
Not only will setting ambitious emission reduction targets help with climate change, it will also lead to cleaner and more resilient cities and infrastructure systems. Energy systems with high percentages of renewables — or even decarbonized power grids — are better able to resist shocks than those heavily dependent on fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal.
Extreme weather events such as this year’s winter storm are expected, and we need to adapt our infrastructure to withstand such stressors. And we especially need to take into consideration vulnerable communities, those that already suffer from chronic stressors related to toxic pollution, poverty, food insecurity, mixed immigration status and gentrification. States and communities around the country have begun to prepare for climate change by developing their own climate adaptation plans; we have many examples to follow.
Our world leaders need to leave COP26 with actionable goals and with concrete, meaningful and realistic deadlines. And policymakers and leaders in Texas must do their part and adopt and accelerate measures to combat climate change, addressing energy infrastructure and equitable resilience. Only then will we rise to the challenge of climate change.
Leite is an associate professor and the John A. Focht Centennial Teaching Fellow in Civil Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas. She serves on the leadership of a universitywide grand challenges initiative, Planet Texas 2050.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Opinion: We all must rise to the challenge of climate change
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