Climate Change

What do you personally find most troubling about climate change?
Everything about climate change is terrifying. Particularly, I find that the intensity of storms, destabilization of nations and extinctions  to be alarming. Also, lack of sustainable agriculture and loss of cities due to rising sea levels. These issues are alarming because we are already seeing these effects globally and nationally. I can only imagine how much worse it can get if we don't act soon combat climate change. What is also troubling is that people still don't believe that climate change exists and that some think that it's not their problem. With the severity of storms in the last few months, such as hurricane Harvey, hurricane Irma and the North Bay wild fires, people need to realize that climate change is everyone's problem.

As a public health professional, what do you think needs the greatest attention right now?

The greatest attention should be on prevention and education at all levels. As an individual, there needs to be more educational information and incentives by local/Federal levels to reduce the impact of climate change. It would be beneficial for public health professionals to partner directly with scientists to create an educational program that can help educate the general public about the dangers of our current lifestyle and how we are pushing our planet to be unsustainable. Individuals need to be educated not only on their individual impact on the climate, but also of the power they have to speak up and promote legislative change. On a Federal level, there needs to be a robust educational program for all members within the government on how the climate affects health, the environment, agriculture, the oil/fuel industry, the economy, national issues and global issues. Federal legislation should also assist prevention efforts by providing incentives for going green and begin to crack down on the oil/fuel industry. On a national as well as global level, education should still be the primary focus, but should also focus on phasing out or eliminating toxic chemicals.

If you were visiting with a long-lost relative who had never heard about climate change, how would you describe it and its attendant human health and ecological threats?

Climate change is one of the biggest threats not only to the environment, but to human health and sustainability. Climate change is caused by our current lifestyle, such as unsustainable agriculture, reliance on plastic, greenhouse gas emissions, burning of fossil fuels, and usage of toxic chemicals/substances. This is causing our environment to degrade at a rapid rate and is causing irreversible damage. Climate change can cause the melting of the polar ice caps which results in increase sea levels, extinction of species including us, increased intensity of natural disasters, increase in health issues, reproductive harm, and destabilization of societies. These changes are already being seen, in the U.S. alone, we experienced hurricane Harvey, hurricane Irma and the North Bay fires just in the last few months. All of these events were essentially unprecedented and are tied to climate change. If we don't stop soon, it will be too late and we will not be able to fix the harmful effects of climate change.