Protecting the Health and Well-Being of Communities in a Changing Climate Proceedings of a Workshop (2018) / Chapter Skim
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7 Reflections on the Day
7 Reflections on the Day
Pages 109-118
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From page 109... ...
Regarding the real and present nature of the health effects of climate change, Baxter referred to Jonathan Patz's discussion of the diverse and powerful set of health effects related to urban heat, extreme weather, air pollution, allergens, vector and water-borne disease, the water and food supply effects of climate change, mental health, and climate-related refugees and political instability. Although the ensuing presentations and discussions did not address every instance of any one of these effects, panelists did cover an extraordinarily diverse array of health effects related to climate change and the specific forms that these effects are taking in certain communities.
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From page 110... ...
Regarding the message that the health effects of climate change can be addressed, Baxter referred to Patz's "simple solution," which is to reduce carbon emissions. Doing so immediately creates a healthier environment and can be done, Baxter said, "whether you believe in climate change or not." He added that doing things that address the principal causes of ill health, for example, walking more and eating better, will also help the environment.
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From page 111... ...
. "It could demonstrate," he said, "a change that is, in a way, beyond belief." He found it "powerful" that the work being done in Kentucky could have this effect even though their local actions in and of themselves will not change what Baxter called the "global facts" about climate change or its effects on health.
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From page 112... ...
. But moving away from California and looking broadly across the United States, he asked whether local projects and plans will add up to the regional and global change that is needed to address the fundamental drivers of adverse climate change.
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From page 113... ...
"You have to have a process that involves the people." He asserted that experts in the environmental community, and sometimes the health community, are "not as good as we ought to be at really believing in that process and really working that process." 2 This section summarizes closing remarks made by Frank Loy, chair, Roundtable on En vironmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine and U.S. Representative to the 66th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
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From page 114... ...
Through their efforts, he said, "one can build the kind of base of support that is needed for action." Loy mentioned being part of an organization that has analyzed attitudes about climate change among the U.S. population and has found correlations with sex (with women more likely to acknowledge climate change)
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From page 115... ...
Second, he suggested more communication in "that middle field" between politics and scientific expertise that begins to lay these issues out in broad, more publicly understandable forms that communicate both to the general public and across "technical silos." Finally, Isham said he had been encouraged and energized by the examples presented at this workshop and hoped that "we have the wisdom" to begin building bridges of communication, not just between the health and environmental sectors, but beyond. Marthe Gold of The New York Academy of Medicine wondered aloud why climate change has become political and even partisan.
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From page 116... ...
Finally, she offered what she called a "global sense of hope." She mentioned that she would be co-chairing, at end of the April 2017, an expert panel that would be creating a Caribbean-wide roadmap to climate change. Those countries, she said, are taking on the responsibility to act.
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From page 117... ...
" This communication principle is something, she said, "we are learning over and over again." In her opinion, the adage, "check your agenda at the door," which Halida Hatic had stressed during her presentation (Panel 1) , is particularly pertinent to this issue today.
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