• Health

Climate Change Greatly Increases The Risk That Ebola Will Spread

• bats
• climate change
• CNN
• Ebola

According to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, the climate crisis will bring a 1.75 to 3.2-fold increase by 2070 in the rate at which the deadly Ebola virus spreads from animals to humans and the risk that it would spread to the U.S. also increases.

Why This Matters:  The estimates of global deaths that will be attributable to climate change just keep going up. The climate crisis could, in fact, “halt and reverse” all the progress made in human health over the past century. 

• Health

Surge In Dangerous Viruses Spread by Mosquitos, Climate Change May Be Why

• dengue fever
• EEE virus
• mosquitos

There have been eight locally-transmitted cases of dengue fever in Florida confirmed this year according to the Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, part of a global surge in the virus. Similarly, nine Americans have died this year of a virus called Eastern equine encephalitis, or “Triple E,” which is also spread by mosquitos and causes swelling of the brain.

Why This Matters:  Experts believe the surges in these mosquito-borne viruses are caused by climate change.

• Health

Healthcare Sector is the World’s 5th Largest Emitter of Greenhouse Gases

• GHGs
• greenhouse gas
• healthcare

According to a new study conducted by Healthcare Without Harm, if the global health care sector were a country, it would be the fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet. Not only are doctors, nurses and health facilities all first responders to the impacts of climate change, but hospitals and health care systems paradoxically make a major contribution to […]

• Health

Rising Heat and Humidity, a Lethal Combination

• climate change
• extreme heat
• severe weather

Daytime highs across much of the Southern United States have been breaking records this past week but a stifling combination of high heat and humidity is preventing nights from cooling off, creating dangerous heat situations in cities like Houston (also neighboring Galveston where the heat index remained above 100 for 40 straight hours). As the […]

• Health

U.S. Soldiers and Minorities Unduly Impacted by Excessive Heat From Climate Change

• african americans
• extreme heat
• heat
• heat illness
• military

A new Defense Department report on the security impacts of climate change provides startling evidence of the impacts of climate change on military readiness and the welfare of servicemembers — Health impacts from heat have already cost the military as much as nearly $1 billion from 2008 to 2018 in lost work, retraining and medical care, according to a new report by NBC News and Inside Climate News.

• Health

Toxic Chemicals Churned Up By Natural Disasters a Long-Term Threat to Human Health

• climate change
• Flooding
• human health
• Hurricanes
• toxic chemicals
• wildfires

Climate change often compounds natural disasters such as fueling wildfires and increasing the risk for catastrophic flooding. While this results in billions of dollars of damage new evidence has revealed that these disasters are also stirring up toxic chemicals and making Americans sick. As the New York Times reported, “By knocking chemicals loose from soil, […]

• Health

Growing Group of Doctors Talk Climate With Their Patients

• climate change
• health
• public health

by Miro Korenha and Alexandra Patel When you visit your doctor it’s usually to remedy something that’s bothering you or a routine preventative visit, but during those visits has your doctor ever talked to you about climate change and how it might be affecting your health? Even if your doctor hasn’t, a growing number of […]

• Health

Trump Administration Makes Empty Promises on PFAS Pollution, Congress and States Taking Action

• PFAS
• toxic pollution

In 2018, then EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt promised to designate a toxic firefighting chemical called Per/Polyfluorinated Substances, also known as PFAS, as a hazardous substance that could be regulated, but since then has done nothing about the 610 sites in 43 states contaminated by PFAS, including 117 military sites, and the nearly 500 industrial sites that are potentially discharging PFAS into the air and water, according to a recent study by the Environmental Working Group.

• Health

120 Minutes of Nature Needed Each Week

• forest bathing
• healing
• health
• nature
• well being

The study in Nature’s Scientific Reports surveyed people about how they felt and how much time they had spent out of doors, and the study’s authors found that the participants were more likely to report feeling well if they had spent more than 120 minutes out of doors over the past week, with little difference between key groups (such as the elderly) or how the outdoor time was spent (longer versus shorter outdoor activities).  The benefits peaked between 3 and 5 hours, with no further reported well-being gain after that.

• Health
• Weather

Acting on Climate (Literally) Will Save Lives, It’s Science!

• #ActOnClimate
• climate change
• extreme heat
• heat wave
• United States

  According to a new study in the journal Science Advances, meeting the Paris Climate Agreement’s goals of keeping the rise of global average temperatures to 1.5° C could substantially mitigate heat-related mortality in U.S. cities. This new study is one of the first to investigate how future climate scenarios might impact heat-related fatalities in […]

• Health

Louisiana’s Cancer Alley Visualized​

• Cancer Alley
• Chemicals
• Environmental Justice
• environmental racism
• industry
• Louisiana

Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a trail of 150 petroleum factories creates a glaring backdrop of smokestacks behind the Mississippi River and a perpetual fog along the banks. Courtesy of its flat ground, an abundance of carbon-rich decay, and the Mississippi’s inflowing fresh water, Louisiana has been home to one of the most rampant […]

• Health

Service Members Face Danger From More Than Enemy Fire

• Agent Orange
• burn pits
• Camp Lejeune
• memorial day
• PFAS
• toxic chemicals

This Memorial Day we honor the military service of Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation.  In April of 2018, the Department of Defense provided Congress a list of contaminated U.S. military bases — the document, according to Healthline, identified 401 active installations in the United States with at least one area where […]