Climate Change is Making Us Sick in Washington
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Max Savishinsky, WPSR
Phone: 206.547.2630
Email: Max@WPSR.org
Impacts and Solutions are Focus of WPSR's Climate/Health 2022 Report
Seattle, July 14, 2022 - Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility released its 2022 Climate and Health Report, detailing the harms of climate change to human health. The report enumerates the opportunities for improving the quality of life for millions of Washingtonians through climate action, including actionable steps that individuals, businesses, and policy-makers can take.
Climate change and human health are inextricably linked, and the worsening effects of climate change are already having real, documented impacts on the health of Washington communities. The report finds that the 2020 wildfire smoke in Western Washington led to as many as 179 excess deaths from respiratory illnesses. From wildfire smoke to extreme weather events, Washington residents, especially low-income and BIPOC Washingtonians, are facing increasing rates of asthma, heat related illness, and threats from infectious diseases, among countless other health concerns.
“The longer we wait to act, the more the earth will warm, the more the climate will be disrupted, and the more dire and widespread the impacts and harms on people will become,” writes Ken Lans, a founding member of WPSR and a member of the Climate and Health Task Force.
This report serves as a guide for tackling climate-related health factors in our policies, in our healthcare providers’ offices, and in our homes. Download the 2022 Climate and Health Report.
Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR) is a health professional-led advocacy organization working to create a healthy, just, peaceful and sustainable world. For over 40 years, WPSR has taken on the gravest threats to human health and survival, including advocating for nuclear abolition, economic equality, and climate justice.
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For more information, contact Max Savishinsky at Max@WPSR.org
Congress must seize this moment...
In early August, 60 healthcare and public health organizations from around the nation signed a letter to Congress, insisting that their infrastructure bill and budget reconciliation bill (both in progress on Capitol Hill as of our writing this) include specific and robust investments in solutions to the climate crisis.
Join the below-listed organizations in taking action against the climate crisis with a donation to WPSR’s Climate & Health Task Force HERE.
Dear Members of Congress:
As health organizations, we represent physicians, nurses, mental health professionals, public health and health care professionals, health scientists and researchers, patients and advocates all dedicated to promoting health and saving lives. Climate change is a health emergency. Addressing it by transitioning the nation to clean, renewable electricity and clean transportation will avoid the worst health impacts of climate change and achieve immediate improvements in air quality and health at the same time. Congress’ current work on legislation to invest in infrastructure and other priorities must yield a package of climate change measures that meet the urgency of this moment by achieving a roughly 50% reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Air pollution and climate change are impacting the health of millions of Americans now, and those impacts will only get worse without action. Emissions from fossil fuel or other combustion-based operations are worsening air quality, which is especially harmful for children, seniors, pregnant people, people with respiratory illnesses and people who work or play outside. These same emissions are also driving climate change and with it, sweeping and dramatic health harms. More intense and frequent wildfires, strong storms and persistent extreme heat are already causing physical and mental harm.
As a result of numerous current and legacy racist policies and practices, people of color are disproportionately more likely to have multiple pre-existing health conditions, to face social disadvantages and environmental risks that make them more vulnerable to climate change. Communities of color are also three times more likely than white communities to live in areas experiencing the worst air pollution.
Congress must seize this moment to make major investments in climate and health solutions. By cleaning up the nation’s electricity and transportation, you can not only slash greenhouse gas emissions but also improve health by cleaning up other dangerous air pollution.
As you debate investments in infrastructure and consider the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, our organizations ask you to approve legislation to:
Invest in clean, non-combustion renewable energy. A clean electricity standard that achieves 100% renewable electricity by 2035 and rapid reductions in natural gas and coal use are necessary to drive a nationwide transition to pollution-free sources like wind, solar, geothermal and tidal. To protect health equity, clean energy legislation should not include offset credits that would allow for increased pollution in communities already experiencing poor air quality.
Establish long-term clean energy tax incentives. Paired with a clean electricity standard, ten-year tax incentives for clean electricity, energy storage, transmission will help drive innovation and deployment of pollution-free energy.
Rapidly transition to zero-emission vehicles, buses and ports. Include historic investments in electric vehicles and buses and the necessary charging infrastructure. Specifically, please include $40 billion in electric vehicle manufacturing, $40 billion over the next decade in charging infrastructure, and at least $20 billion to help transform the nation’s diesel school bus fleet to electric, zero-emission buses. As part of a transition to a pollution-free transportation sector, include investments to electrify the nation’s ports, which have some of the poorest air quality in the country.
Commit to environmental justice by ensuring 40% of investments in clean air go to frontline communities. Any efforts to reduce air and climate pollutants should not worsen existing inequities and should direct benefits to the communities that have been disproportionately burdened by air pollution and climate change.
Investing in infrastructure is an opportunity to protect health from climate change – particularly for underserved communities – that Congress and the nation can't afford to miss. The below organizations urge swift and bold investments towards a healthier future.
Sincerely,
Allergy & Asthma Network
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
American Heart Association
American Lung Association
American Psychological Association
American Public Health Association
American Thoracic Society
Arkansas Public Health Association
Association of Public Health Nurses
Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
Children's Environmental Health Network
Climate Psychiatry Alliance
Colorado Public Health Association
Delaware Academy of Medicine/Delaware Public Health Association
Florida Public Health Association
Georgia Clinicians for Climate Action
Georgia Society for Public Health Education
Health by Design
Health Care Without Harm
Illinois Association of School Nurses
Illinois Public Health Association
Indiana Public Health Association
Interfaith Public Health Network
Kansas Public Health Association
Maine Public Health Association
Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health
Medical Students for a Sustainable Future
Michigan Public Health Association
Missouri Public Health Association
Mothers & Others For Clean Air
National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
National Association of School Nurses
National Environmental Health Association
NC Public Health Association
Nevada Public Health Association
New Hampshire Public Health Association
New Jersey Association of Public Health Nurse Administrators
New Jersey Public Health Association
New Jersey Society for Public Health Education (NJSOPHE)
New York State Public Health Association
North Dakota Public Health Association
Oregon Public Health Association
Pennsylvania Public Health Association
Philippine Nurses Association of America
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Physicians for Social Responsibility/Florida
Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association
PSR Colorado
Public Health Institute
Respiratory Health Association
San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility
Society for Public Health Education
Tennessee Public Health Association
Utah Public Health Association
Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility
Washington State Public Health Association
Wisconsin Health Professionals for Climate Action
Wisconsin Public Health Association