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EPA's New Web Tool Reveals Carbon Polluters In Your Backyard

2012-01-11T17:00:00Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just released a new, interactive reporting tool for major greenhouse gas (GHG) sources in the US. It’s a user-friendly way to explore what facilities are the biggest sources of health-harming carbon pollution.

This is a long-awaited moment—we can track where and which are the biggest producers of carbon pollution, especially carbon dioxide (CO2) and other GHGs, right in our backyards. You can now find out some of the major sources of carbon pollution and other GHGs in your state in 2010 – and see the relative contributions of power plants and other large facilities.

The EPA website compiles GHG emissions data from 2010, the first year of reporting from industries who are participating in their system. This is a great start at tracking carbon pollution– the major cause of climate change.

Carbon pollution causes climate change that can threaten human health in myriad ways. I’ve blogged about some of the health-harming consequences of climate change, which include:

extreme heat
air pollution, including ozone smog, allergenic pollen, and wildfire smoke
storm damage, including flooding from intense rainfall
infectious illnesses

There are huge health benefits we stand to gain by limiting carbon pollution-- to help us avoid billions of dollars in costs to deal with climate change-related health effects. Climate-health preparedness and adaptation planning will also help create more resilient communities whose damages can be reduced.

Take a look at EPA’s new webtool -- it helps lend a sense of the state-by-state sources of carbon pollution that trigger climate change. Our health is being affected today by environmental changes linked to rising temperatures – but even moreso, the health of our children and grandchildren will be affected.

Thousands of Record-Breaking Extreme Weather Events in 2011 Prompts Public Health Action Now

2011-12-08T14:19:41Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

I grew up in a small rural town in upstate New York, east of Binghamton, north of the Catskills. Some of my sweetest summers were spent at my grandfather’s fishing camp outside Cooks Falls.

As a kid, I rode my bike along green fields of carrots and corn; milking barns were my playgrounds. Even now, upstate holds me in its quiet thrall—I know in my heart why the green vistas further east in Dutchess County inspired 19th century Hudson River School paintings.

Perhaps because of this attachment, I’ve been particularly unsettled by the devastation that Hurricane Irene wrought this August on that particular corner of the world. Dairy farms that lost their animals, bridges washed out, families who lost a lifetime of possessions and memories as their homes collapsed. This destruction reminded me, all too viscerally, that the intersection of climate change and health that I study as a scientist exists not only on the printed page of medical journals but also in the real lives of people -- people very near the places where I grew up.

We, as a nation, are experiencing extreme weather disasters more often. Just as scientists have predicted for two decades, as carbon pollution levels in our atmosphere rise, we’re facing more frequent and more severe storms, heat waves, and floods. As a nation, we can and do need to be better prepared for these disasters. That’s one reason NRDC’s Health Program has just released a new, web-based extreme-weather mapping tool. It allows Americans to track extreme weather in their area, examine the connection between extreme weather and human health, learn the best ways to protect themselves and their communities, and investigate state preparedness programs. It also shows how to get involved in the fight against climate change.

That is a fight we need to win so that people everywhere won’t have to suffer the health consequences of climate change. Those consequences are on the rise, costing us both money and most importantly, lives. The money is significant. A study several NRDC colleagues and I published with economists from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco last month in the health policy journal Health Affairs found that the medical consequences of six climate change-influenced weather disasters between 2002 and 2009 cost Americans at least $14 billion in associated health costs. These costs are borne by all of us, whether we were direct victims of the events or not, either in higher medical insurance premiums or because the federal government (a/k/a you and me) underwrites approximately one-third of all medical costs in the US.

But those are far from the only health-related costs of climate change. As I’ve written before, climate change is extending the pollen season and may be affecting the prevalence and frequency of allergy and asthma among American’s children and adults. The consequences range from the annoying (think: more weeks of allergy-related blowing your nose) to the severe: asthma can lead to doctor’s visits, emergency-room visits, sometimes even death. Some in our nation could be paying the high price for carbon pollution with their lives.

During the Texas heat wave this summer, for instance, when daily high temperatures between June and August in Houston averaged 98.8 °F, 11 people died in that city from causes directly attributed to the heat. Some were elderly. But one was a 15-year-old high school sophomore, Al Smith, Jr., who fell ill and fainted during football practice; he succumbed two days later. He was only one of six high school football players who died this summer in the heat-ravaged South after going to a practice in searing temperatures. And the frequency of these hot days could increase ten-fold in the future, according to the latest climate science, if we don’t limit the carbon pollution that triggers climate change.

This summer, Texas families also experienced grave devastation and loss due to the worst wildfire season in the history of the state, according to Justice Jones, a forest service spokesman. In the last year, 10 deaths in Texas were related to wildfires, and more than 2,900 homes and 4 million acres have been destroyed. This has left many families with virtually nothing. Mizzy Zdroj, a volunteer firefighter in Bastrop County who lost her uninsured home to the blaze, is now staying in a friend’s garage with her 8-year-old twin boys. Large wildfires in the West have increased four-fold in recent decades, becoming more frequent and longer-lasting as hotter springs and summers dry soils and vegetation. Even hotter temperatures, if climate change continues on its current course, will heighten wildfire risks.

We owe ourselves, our families and our neighbors much more than these heartbreaking outcomes. Preparedness measures that anticipate climate change-related weather extremes help save money and lives. Over a dozen US cities, including Philadelphia, PA, have early heat-health warning systems that are already helping save lives when extreme heat approaches. However, only 13 states have currently developed climate action plans or strategies that include at least one health preparedness measure. (You can read more about those 13 states on NRDC’s Climate Change Threatens Health webpages here.) The other 37 states need to get on board. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, we can help limit future climate disasters by reducing the carbon pollution we create as a nation. A host of successful strategies are waiting to be employed.

Together, we can take the steps that will protect the people and the places we love from seeing summers becoming even more lethally hot. Let’s not wait for thousands more record-breaking extreme events, either. Let’s do it now.

2011, A Year of Living Dangerously: SREX Report Highlights Need to Prepare for Extreme Events and Climate Change

2011-11-18T16:22:52Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

For millions of Americans, and people around the globe, 2011 has been nothing if not a year of extremes: 14 disastrous weather events in the US so far this year have each cost over a billion dollars in damages, an all-time record. My NRDC colleague Theo Spencer blogged about the human toll still felt across the nation. And the year isn’t over yet.

Today, with the release of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s SREX report– “SREX” being the acronym for The Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation– we know even more about the connections between extreme weather events and the human disasters they trigger. For example, the SREX summary finds at least a 66 percent chance that extreme temperatures and coastal extreme high water (which contributes to flooding) have worsened as a result of human activities.

From the SREX press release:

"For the high emissions scenario, it is likely that the frequency of hot days will increase by a factor of 10 in most regions of the world", said Thomas Stocker, the other Co-chair of Working Group I. “Likewise, heavy precipitation will occur more often, and the wind speed of tropical cyclones will increase while their number will likely remain constant.

Hot days increasing by a factor of ten, if we do nothing to reduce the rate at which we spew carbon pollution into the atmosphere? And more heavy rain and higher winds? Heat waves and hurricanes are the most lethal weather-related hazards in the US over the last decade (2001-2010), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

And just how much will such escalating climate-related disasters cost us if we don’t take actions to counter them? Last week, my NRDC colleagues and I released, with economists from the University of California, a study revealing the enormous health-related costs of climate change in the US. From evaluating a group of just six case studies occurring in the last decade, examples of categories whose effects climate change are likely to worsen in future, we estimated health costs exceeding $14 billion and over 760,000 interactions with the health care system. These findings are described in a paper in the journal Health Affairs, which can be accessed from NRDC’s website here.

Because these health-related costs are substantial and have not previously been included in climate damage estimates in the US, prior valuations are underestimates. The total costs are even higher if you consider all climate change-related events and the associated health costs that occurred in the US during the last decade. We estimated costs ranging up to $40 billion in our study, from just those six events. NRDC’s President Frances Beinecke reflects on the study here.

The good news is: preparedness pays. With a better understanding of these economic impacts and health risks, as offered by the study, government agencies and key players can create effective partnerships for climate-health preparedness that aggressively limit and reduce public health damage.

We know that only 13 US states have climate-health preparedness in their state climate action plans. (You can see which 13 states do have health plans by visiting NRDC’s webpages here). That leaves 37 states, or 74% of the nation, without anything in the way of planning on climate & health. We can do better.

So here is the great news in the SREX report today: we have an enormous opportunity to improve our lives and create healthier communities.

We can prepare ourselves for climate change’s effects. Climate change preparedness is indeed happening already, across the nation and the globe.

NRDC has terrific webpages that show how climate change threatens health right in your backyard, and what’s being done (or not) to prepare. You can take action to prepare yourself, and your actions matter.

A new update of NRDC’s seminal report on stormwater pollution and green infrastructure, Rooftops to Rivers, was just released this week, to great fanfare (see NRDC colleague Peter Lehner’s blog). The report looks at 14 case studies of how climate change will affect water issues cities already face, such as flooding in extreme rainfall events. Cities like New York, Philadelphia, and a dozen others are making green infrastructure improvements to become more climate-ready and resilient. NRDC’s Thirsty For Answers report highlights the strides that some major US cities are making as climate change challenges urban water resources.

Seattle, Chicago, and New York, for example, are among the cities making strides in terms of adapting their water infrastructure for climate changes. St. Louis, on the other hand, hasn’t yet been able to accomplish as much on the water-related risks of climate change (although they have been leaders on watching for heat-related illness and mortality among their residents, since they’ve experienced historic heat waves in the past).

And indeed, some members of Congress are trying to help us promote health preparedness and natural resource adaptation. Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) recently introduced the Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act (I describe it in a blog here); and Sens. Whitehouse (D-RI) and Baucus (D-MT) have just introduced the Safeguarding America’s Future and Environment (SAFE) Act.

The SREX report makes a point of saying that future emissions become the “dominant” source of uncertainty for projections about some weather extremes by the end of the century. The energy choices we make today directly impact the world in which our children and grandchildren will live. A lack of action means a world in which extreme weather is the norm -- summers are unrecognizably hot, floods regularly disrupt businesses, and catastrophic winds blow away long-tended farm topsoil, trees, and beloved homes. The uncertainty about these findings is not about climate change, but rather is about whether we will lower carbon emissions.

Our carbon-spewing rate is, unfortunately, still climbing, as detailed in an LA Times piecelast week. The “greenhouse gas index” jumped last year by the biggest amount on record. Those carbon emissions we spew out today are currently running higher than any of the scenarios envisioned by the IPCC in 2007. We are already outdoing the scientists’ most aggressive model projections of carbon polluting. We can do better than this.

The findings of the SREX report also afford us a chance to pause and reflect on the wisdom and pioneering work of Dr. Paul Epstein of Harvard University, who died earlier this week. Paul’s work has inspired many, many people to get involved with researching the ways that climate change is affecting our health. He published widely beginning in the early 1990s on the connections between climate change and human health, writing many highly influential reports and papers.

Dr. Epstein also advocated for the opportunities we have to improve our lives and create healthier communities, by demanding that we put more funding toward climate change preparedness efforts in more states and localities. He was a voice of reason, humanity, and heart. He highlighted the need to reduce carbon pollution and limit the worst of the health-harming effects that carbon pollution triggers.

So entirely relevant to today’s SREX report is Paul's quote this week in the NY Times: “If extreme weather events are part of a changing climate, we’ve seen lots of evidence of the profound health effects associated with climate change this year.”

If a leader is the person who never gives up, Paul Epstein was surely that person. He will be deeply missed. We can all carry on for Paul, whether we knew him personally or not, by working to create a healthier, climate-prepared world.

The Staggering Health Costs of Climate Change

2011-11-08T13:08:23Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

The extreme weather just won’t seem to leave people alone this year.

I’m talking to an arborist to find replacements for beloved lilac bushes and one magnolia tree that just got tall enough to lend some nice summer shade, now snapped off in its prime by last weekend’s wet October snowfall that’s being called “Snowtober” by some.

My sense of humor about the year has worn thin. Neighbors across much of upstate NY and Vermont are still reeling in very serious ways from the flooding and water damage of Irene: farms and fields that were underwater, homes upended, village main streets still mending from cascades of debris and mud, all at a time when the regional and national economy is limping, at best. The preliminary tally of damages from 2011’s weather disasters already “exceed $45 billion”, according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). And we have nearly two months to go.

As my colleagues at NRDC like Frances Beinecke and elsewhere (Joe Romm and others) have said, what Americans are being confronted by from this record-breaking year of extremes -- storms, floods, heat, drought, wildfires – is increasingly the shape of things to come, if climate change continues unabated.

But while people are beginning to understand these local costs of climate change, there’s still a disconnect between climate change and our health.

I hope that gap might be bridged by a new report published today in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs, which details the tremendous costs of some events that have already happened right here in the US – types of events that are projected to worsen with more climate change. With NRDC colleagues and economists from UCSF and UC Berkeley, we estimated the health-related costs of climate change.

Those health costs exceeded $14 billion dollars and over 760,000 encounters with the health care system -- staggering figures, since they resulted from just six key climate-change related events in the US during the last decade.

The six climate change-related case studies we looked at from 2002 to 2009 in our analysis considered specific examples of extreme weather and disease events that are expected to worsen with climate change. The events included ozone air pollution, heat waves, hurricanes, outbreaks of infectious disease, river flooding, and wildfires across the US. And they led to:

1,689 premature deaths
8,992 hospitalizations
21,113 emergency department visits
734,398 outpatient visits.

This is the first report to develop a uniform method of quantifying the associated health costs for extreme weather and disease events that are expected to be exacerbated by climate change.

Since prior estimates of climate change damage costs in the US haven’t included specific health costs, they were underestimates. We need to add-in health-related costs, because these numbers are big -- in the billions.

Since we value our health, and especially our children’s and grandchildren’s health very dearly, we should think about these billion-dollar price tags. We only describe six such events; there were undoubtedly more that occurred in the last decade, so we know our total is an underestimate of the overall national health-related costs of climate change.

This illuminates an important message: climate-health preparedness pays. It will help us reduce those billions of dollars in health costs, and save lives.

You can get involved in the solution by putting pressure on our government agencies at a local and federal level to focus on climate-health preparedness. We have a responsibility to proactively engage with and respond to the transformation that’s happening now, in lots of American communities. Some states and cities are definitely starting to take the initiative to become more climate-resilient, healthier places.

Right now, there is no federal mandate that guarantees funding for climate-health research or preparedness planning.

And only 13 US states currently have health preparedness measures in their state climate change adaptation plans. The other 37 (or three-quarters of the US) lack comprehensive climate-health preparedness measures. Most of us are sitting in the cross-hairs of climate change.

NRDC’s “Climate Change Threatens Health” webpages (at www.nrdc.org/climatemaps) map five major climate-health vulnerabilities across the US, so you can see how climate change affects health right in your backyard. The webpages also tell you what (if anything) is being done to prepare and adapt to climate change where you live, and actions you can take to protect your and your family’s health.

Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) just last week introduced legislation that would promote climate-health preparedness. The Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act would improve the public health response to climate change. The legislation would address the negative health effects related to climate change by supporting research, monitoring, planning and interagency coordination. This act deserves the public’s support -- and strong funding, too.

Proactive public health solutions to climate disasters need to be systematized now to reduce inevitable climate change-related peril. We hope the Health Affairs report provides the methodology that will allow our leaders to begin to do just that.

Rep. Lois Capps introduces legislation to protect health from climate change, extreme weather

2011-11-03T15:39:24Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

You don’t have to convince the 13,000 American public health professionals in Washington, DC this week for the American Public Health Association meeting that climate change harms people’s health. They recognize the health risks of carbon pollution, and see the huge health benefits we stand to gain by creating more climate-resilient communities and homes right now. We need to make this a national priority.

Wednesday November 2nd, US House of Representatives member Lois Capps (D-CA) re-affirmed this urgent message on the Hill, by reintroducing the Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act, which would improve the public health response to climate change. The legislation would address the negative health effects related to climate change by supporting research, surveillance, planning and interagency coordination.

Congresswoman Capps (CA-23) was joined by representatives of some of the nation’s leading public health organizations to announce the legislation, including Dr. Georges Benjamin, the Executive Director of American Public Health Association; Dr. Jeffrey Levi, of Trust for America’s Health; Dr. Jerome Paulson, of the American Academy of Pediatrics; and David Dyjack, Associate Executive Director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Only 13 U.S. states have any type of climate change-health preparedness measures in place currently in their climate action plans, as NRDC’s “Climate Change Threatens Health” webpages detail, state by state. That means 37 states lack climate-health preparedness plans. Most of us are sitting in the cross-hairs of climate change.

Given the experiences of 2011, a year in which thousands of extreme events have broken heat, drought, rainfall, and flooding records from coast to coast, this has to change. The more we take stock of the staggering toll these extremes are having on health and communities in the US and around the world, the more we realize: it’s time to shift toward doing.

That’s what Rep. Capps’ bill is about: action. Becoming more resilient and better prepared. Not getting blindsided when extreme events occur, because we’ve looked ahead.

Climate change preparedness makes people and communities healthier and more resilient. Climate change is harming health right in our backyards today. Preparedness pays off in terms of healthier communities right now – and a more secure, prosperous future for our grandchildren.

Rep. Capps’ proposed legislation deserves our applause, our attention, and our vocal support.

A Labor Day Debacle for Clean Air and Health

2011-09-05T13:18:57Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

Let’s keep health front and center in looking at deeply distrurbing news from 2011’s Labor Day weekend: the White House retreated Friday on an opportunity to save lives and improve Americans' health.

The President refused to set lower, more health-protective ozone air quality standards. The decision ignores the unanimous recommendation of the scientific advisors who were asked to look at the evidence and agreed: a lower standard is needed to protect Americans’ health.

Friday’s retreat is a tragedy of public health victories “that-might-have-been,” now abandoned:

4,300 lives every year could have been saved – and now, will not be.
2,200 heart attacks every year could have been avoided – and now, won’t be.
770,000 days when people miss work or school could have been avoided - but not now.
23,000 asthma attacks annually could've been prevented because of cleaner air.

Are you one of the 25 million Americans with asthma? That includes an estimated 7 million kids. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) says asthma prevalence rates are on the rise nationwide. The greatest 2001-2009 increase was among African-American children (almost a 50% increase). Friday’s decision is terrible news for people with asthma. The White House will need to answer if you’re asking, what happened?

This one decision hurts tens of millions vulnerable to ozone smog air pollution: people with asthma, children, seniors, people with chronic heart, respiratory or lung ailments, outdoor workers, athletes, and those of us trying to exercise outside, breathe deeply, get fit and stay fit --- but work and play is more difficult in ozone-polluted air.

EPA’s website describes how breathing ozone irritates airways and reduces lung function in ways likened to “getting a sunburn on your lungs.” It can trigger chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, worsen bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. Repeated exposure can permanently scar lung tissue.

The President’s decision is a capitulation to industry polluters at the expense of public health. It retreats from the mission of protecting human health and our children’s right to breathe clean, healthy air.

Even considering costs, we need a lower ozone standard. As my colleague Laurie Johnson explains here, EPA’s economic analysis finds that the benefits of a lower, more health-protective air quality standard outweigh costs 26 to 1. NRDC’s Frances Beinecke highlights this and more here.

At the very least, now we expect President Obama to strongly defend what remains of the Clean Air Act rules that are already out.

Undoubtedly, public health will face more House attacks. But public health should not be negotiable. Our children’s health is not for sale.

Dirty, Muggy Summer Air Reminds Us Why We Need Stronger Air Quality Standards that Cut Pollution

2011-08-30T22:07:11Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

Today it was 111°F in Phoenix, AZ; tomorrow a high of 107°F is predicted. More than 70 days this summer have topped 100°F in central Texas. Much of the West still swelters under record-breaking summer heat.

NRDCs new “Climate Change Threatens Health” webpages map five environmental health threats already happening across the US, and detail how climate change can increase those health vulnerabilities where we live.

Earlier this summer, I blogged on one of those climate-health threats, Air Pollution, and the ways that rising temperatures worsen air pollution and harm children’s respiratory health.

Now that it’s late August, two critical pieces of timing are worth repeating.

One: late summer and fall is when both ground-level ozone smog and ragweed pollen production are at their peak in many parts of the U.S. – and that poses a very unfortunate “double-whammy” to the health of tens of millions of American with seasonal allergies and the nation’s 24 million asthmatics. Asthma is a disease affected by multiple factors, and air pollution is one major type of exposure that can worsen its symptoms.
Two: very soon we should hear about the new federal National Ambient Air Quality Standard (or NAAQS) for ground-level ozone. This is a big deal for the nation’s health, since moving to a more health-protective standard could save up to 12,000 lives; prevent up to 58,000 asthma attacks; and mean 21,000 hospital and emergency room visits can be avoided – each year.

A lower, more health-protective standard has been endorsed by medical authorities and the EPA’s own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).

The announcement of the new NAAQS on ozone are awaited with much anticipation. A lot is at stake in terms of reducing ozone smog concentrations today, prolonging years of healthy, productive life, and avoiding terrible future costs to people’s health.

New research shows that, as climate change continues to ramp up temperatures and ozone concentrations, asthma Emergency Room visits among children could increase by 7.3% in the NY metropolitan region in the 2020s. That is, unless we take decisive action to reduce allowable ozone exposures and to reduce the carbon pollution that causes climate change.

Important days are ahead, for our health, and especially for our children’s health.

Irene Approaches, But Climate Change Got Here First

2011-08-25T19:58:50Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

NRDC’s “Climate Change Threatens Health” webpages map five major climate-health vulnerabilities across the US. One of these is Flooding, which much of the East Coast is now bracing for because of the approach of Hurricane Irene.

It’s time for everyone in eastern communities to prepare, check on friends and neighbors, know your local warning systems, and stay informed. People in New York City can check on preparedness steps here.

Unfortunately, many of the harmful effects of hurricanes can be compounded by climate change.

Climate change has been linked to hurricanes and storms with more destructive potential in the Atlantic. As climate change continues, storms with faster wind speeds and more rain are likely. Intense rains and coastal storm surges can cause extensive flooding and an associated range of health impacts and risks, including:

death and injury
contaminated drinking water
hazardous material spills
increased populations of disease-carrying insects and rodents
moldy houses
community disruption and displacement

Sea level has risen as much as 2 feet over the last century in some parts of the US, worsening the destructive effects of storm surges and flooding for coastal cities and ecosystems. This highlights the dramatic need for coastal climate change preparedness.

Even when it’s not hurricane season, as the global climate continues to warm, it boosts the energy of the water cycle, triggering more intense rain and snow and also intensifying drought.

Climate change is caused by increased levels of carbon pollution. Our webpages help illustrate the dangers of congressional efforts to dismantle the Clean Air Act; which now aims to limit carbon pollution and maintain public health protections.

We can take steps to limit the rising tide of climate-health vulnerabilities in our own backyards.

Take precautions and take care this weekend.

Kidney Stones to Migraines: More Ways Heat Harms Health

2011-08-16T18:34:15Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

Much of America continues to swelter above the 100°F mark today, especially Texas.

In fact, our friends and family in Texas and Oklahoma are suffering through a history-making summer in two ways no one wants to see: record-breaking drought, and for many places the hottest July on record, since record-keeping began in the time of cattle drives in 1895.

The effects of drought extend far beyond soil moisture and water levels. Quality of life suffers too, as Richard Parker eloquently describes writing from Wimberley, Texas. Coupled with the extreme, long-standing drought, this more intense heat is crippling, it’s exhausting to people, animals, and ecosystems.

If you think, “poor Oklahoma & Texas, but that’s not where I live” – PBS has a great site(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/widgets/temp-records/) that describes where more than 4,200 high temperature records across the US have been broken so far this summer, and you can see how your local temperatures stack up.

Besides heat-related illnesses (rash, cramps, exhaustion, fainting, and truly life-threatening heat stroke), which most of us have probably heard about, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has websites to help people prepare for extreme heat.

Some other less apparent ways that heat harms people’s health include:

Millions more cases of painful kidney stones in the US by 2050, as temperatures rise with climate change, increasing dehydration and risk of stone formation. An estimated 1.6-2.2 million more cases are projected, with over $1 billion in additional healthcare costs annually. If you’ve ever had a kidney stone, or live with someone who has, this is a horrible prognosis; children are now starting to get kidney stones.
Migraine headaches have been linked to extreme heat. One hospital study of over 7,000 cases found that, for headaches so severe that patients were admitted to the ER, there was a 7.5% rise in migraines for every 9°F (5°C) increase in temperature on the preceding day.
Other groups at risk from extreme heat include: diabetics; the obese; multiple sclerosis patients; people taking a variety of common medications including antihistamines, some antidepressants, diuretics, laxatives – in other words, tens of millions of Americans.
High ambient temperature has been associated with an increased risk of pre-term births.
Extreme heat poses risks to the health and well-being of people with mental illnesses.
Remember that even healthy young athletes need to protect themselves during heat waves.
The fierce heat has damaged water infrastructure, and burst critical pipelines just when customers across the drought-stricken South and West need precious water the most.
Even nuclear power plants have been crippled by the blistering heat this summer: the Brown’s Ferry nuke plant had to run at 50% power in early August, because the Tennessee River water temperature was already 90°F --too hot to receive any more manmade heat.

Another distressing side of the Summer of 2011 is, at night there’s been less natural cooling relief. Nighttime low temperatures in many Texas & Oklahoma locations have stayed up close to 90°F, running as much as 20°F above local averages. According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) there have already been over 6,000 minimum temperature records broken around the nation.

This is truly bad news for the most heat-vulnerable: young children, older people, people with heart or lung illnesses (since those two systems help regulate body temperature), and economically disadvantaged families who might not be able to afford air conditioning.

The proportion of people age 65 years and over is now growing at the fastest in a century (40 million now in the US, rising to 72 million by 2030).
There are more Americans living in poverty now since the 1960s.
The number of children who fell into poverty between 2008 and 2009 was the largest single-year increase ever recorded.

All three of these groups are especially heat-vulnerable. And it’s getting hotter.

This extreme heat is going to get worse. NRDC just released a new webtool, Climate Change Threatens Health (www.nrdc.org/climatemaps). Our webpages let you zoom in on all 50 states, explore 5 types of health threats– extreme heat, along with drought, flooding, air pollution, and infectious disease -- and read how climate change stands to increase those health vulnerabilities where you live. Distressingly, NRDC’s analysis shows that for each of these five threats, the majority of most-vulnerable states do not have climate-health preparedness plans to help communities respond to those risks.

No one should despair. There’s a lot we can do to protect our families from climate-health threats. NRDC’s webpages offer lots of ideas for climate-health preparedness. Cities, some states, and a number of government agencies are taking climate change very seriously, readying systems to help communities adapt and prepare. This summer, I’ve been to three terrific climate-health-adaptation workshops, two of them right here in New York City, one of the places developing programs to meet the public health challenges of climate change as part of CDC’s “Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative”, along with nine other states and cities.

And we don’t have to leave these kinds of parboiled summers to our children as their inheritance.

Climate change is caused by increased levels of carbon pollution. Our webpages help illustrate the dangers of congressional efforts to dismantle the Clean Air Act. That law is what aims to limit carbon pollution and maintain public health protections.

We can take steps to limit the rising tide of climate change vulnerabilities in our own backyards. It’s time that we start connecting the dots between climate change & our health, and make climate-health preparedness a personal, national priority.

We also need to begin to think about what more days of ill health mean in health care dollars. This is something NRDC has been thinking about a lot, because those health-related costs almost never get included in estimates of how climate change harms society. Estimating the damage costs from storms, floods, heat waves and hurricanes to homes and businesses, hospitals and schools, sewage treatment plants and bridges, as well as losses of food crops and clean water supplies, is totally essential. But what about “we, the people” – what about the illnesses and premature death toll from heat waves and other extreme events? Shouldn't those be counted, too, when we calculate the true costs of climate change?

Right In Your Backyard: Climate Change Threatens Health

2011-08-03T23:55:00Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

Today, NRDC is launching a new web tool called “Climate Change Threatens Health.” These pages (www.nrdc.org/climatemaps ) bring the effects of climate change down to the local level. Users can zoom in on 5 US maps, see how their health is vulnerable to climate change, and learn about what’s needed to protect their families and reduce climate change.

The picture taking shape across the country shows some communities drought-stricken and stressed for adequate safe, clean water supplies; others coping with historic flooding; hotter, drier summers, with greater wildfire risks and more air pollution; most of the nation sweltering under extreme heat; and residents in many states hearing the buzz of mosquito activity for longer and longer seasons each year. Many areas face a combination of these multiple climate-health vulnerabilities.

The medical and national security sectors of our economy have already recognized the need to prepare for the health-related impacts of climate change. It’s time to devote more resources and funding to climate-health preparedness in the new, more volatile climate.

Unfortunately, around the country, many state and city governments continue to largely ignore the threat climate change poses to our health. We spent several months analyzing the status of climate-health adaptation in the United States, and digging through hundreds of pages of climate action plans to see what measures our state governments are taking to help protect our health from these impacts.

Only thirteen states (AK, CA, FL, ME, MD, MI, NH, NY, OR, PA, VA, WA, WI) have developed climate adaptation strategies or state climate action plans that include at least one climate-health adaptation measure.

That means 37 states lack climate-health preparedness plans. Not good.

Consider the recent flooding along the Mississippi River: of ten states that border the river, only Wisconsin has a health-adaptation strategy. So being vulnerable to flooding doesn’t mean states have necessarily developed a flooding-health preparedness plan.

Furthermore, while those thirteen states have taken the positive first step by having health preparedness plans, some parts the plans remain rather general, and fail to map out a clear adaptation strategy. A preparedness plan ideally identifies the responsible agencies and provides a clear roadmap of direct actions.

As we see pictures on the news – or out our windows – of communities being damaged and broken by flooding rivers or violent storms, it is obvious that we need move quickly beyond the planning stage. We should be starting to implement the necessary actions to prepare ourselves for the realities of climate change. While a few states, for example Washington and Maryland, have developed strong health adaptation strategies, today’s overall climate-health preparedness landscape is disheartening.

A recent series of reports by Scientific American examined the contribution of climate change to several recent extreme events, and explained the science behind why these types of events will only become more frequent in the future. The series further emphasizes that the impacts of climate change are no longer some distant threat; they are happening now and are getting worse.

And why are these impacts happening? Climate change is caused by increased levels of carbon pollution. Our webpages illustrate the health dangers of congressional efforts to dismantle the Clean Air Act. That Act now aims to limit carbon pollution, maintain public health protections, and reduce the worst of the threats our webpages describe.

Governments need to take climate threats to public health seriously, and secure the resources needed to help our communities adapt to our uncertain future. And we can take steps to limit the rising tide of climate change vulnerabilities in our own backyards. It’s time that we start connecting the dots between climate change & our health, and make climate-health preparedness a personal, national priority.

The Wheezing Sounds of Summer: Air Pollution Is Hurting Our Children's Health

2011-06-08T13:09:10Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

It’s just the beginning of hot weather across many northern states, but time to recall what rising temperatures do to air quality. Heat worsens air pollution, which harms health in ways that are measurable and pose concerns for society’s most vulnerable, especially children.

Warmer temperatures lead to higher concentrations of ground-level ozone, or smog. A warming climate will worsen this situation. It’s projected to increase emissions of the chemicals that form ozone smog, and speed up ozone-forming chemical reactions in the air, worsening health symptoms. A growing body of scientific research tells us that climate change will lead to higher concentrations of ground-level ozone in many areas of the country. Rising temperatures from human-induced carbon pollution increase ozone smog more in areas with already-high ozone concentrations, meaning that climate change tends to worsen ozone pollution most in already-polluted areas.

Prominent researchers are publishing more and more studies on the links between climate change, air pollution, and harm to kid’s health. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in 2008 that children are especially vulnerable to climate change’s effects, including increased air pollution.

Breathing ozone inflames the deep lung, and people living in ozone-polluted areas are also at increased risk of asthma-related hospital visits and premature mortality. Ozone’s harm to the lung and airways is greater for people who spend time outdoors at work or play – like many kids – because that results in a higher dose to the lung. Asthmatics are especially vulnerable to ozone’s harm; and unfortunately, there are an estimated 7 million US children with asthma. Asthma attacks can be brought on by a number of factors, including exposure to outdoor smog and diesel exhaust, to name two major health-harming air pollutants.

And national asthma rates are rising again, in all age categories but especially among children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 25 million Americans now have asthma. The greatest increase between 2001 and 2009 was in African-American children – almost 50%. In 2009, one in six (17%) non-Hispanic black children had asthma.

Ozone smog boosts hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses. A 2011 analysis looked at nearly 100 prior ozone studies and found that for kids, there was a 3.67% increase in risk of asthma emergency department visits for every 10 parts-per-billion increase in average daily ozone concentrations. Even very low concentrations of ozone can be harmful to health, so it makes sense to do everything we can to lower concentrations in the air we breathe.

There will be a joint hearing today of two Senate subcommittees on the subject of Air Quality and Children’s Health. The body of knowledge that’s been built on ozone is extremely relevant to today’s hearings, since the EPA is in the process of finalizing its reconsideration of the national ozone standards, whose goal under the Clean Air Act is to protect human health.

If children are our future, then we put that future in peril by turning a blind eye to the dangers that air pollution poses to children’s health.

Talking About the Heat... Aiming To Do Something About It

2011-03-29T17:36:13Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

Just days ago, I was in freezing-cold New York City. Now, here in Ahmedabad, India, it’s 39°C (103°F) on this late March day, and going to get much hotter.

I’m here in India with my NRDC colleagues Anjali Jaiswal and Shravya Reddyto help lead a climate change workshop focused on heat stress, in the ancient city of Ahmedabad. With our partners the Public Health Foundation of India and the Indian Institute of Public Health leading the way, dozens Indian expert scientists, and local health and government officials all have gathered to talk about the heat and aim to do something about it - namely, develop ways to reduce city residents' heat vulnerability.

Along with a group of leading US scientists who work on climate change’s effects on health, we're here to listen and learn from one another. We know that the burden of heat-related illness and mortality here in Ahmedabad is already a grave concern. Climate change is projected to raise temperatures another 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) by the 2080s - heat that will likely be too much for the most vulnerable among the City's 5.5 million people, especially children, the elderly, people who work outdoors or are street vendors. The frequency and duration of heat waves is projected increase, too, according to global climate models.

The workshop is off to a great start, with fantastic support from the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. A refreshing difference here at the Ahmedabad workshop is, none of the officials are denying the reality of rising temperatures and accelerating climate change. This western state has long experienced extreme heat, and is among the driest in India. Its own expert scientists document the rapid rise of temperatures in the recent past, and project that further health-harming changes are in store. There’s a high level of commitment to finding ways to help reduce deaths from the heat that sweeps over this booming city each year from May through September, when temperatures of 45-51°C (113-124°F) are not uncommon.

Ahmedabad has an estimated 440,000 residents who live in its slums and are highly vulnerable to heat stress during the hottest days. But it also has technical centers, universities, and research institutes, and is a magnet for high-tech industries. An inspired way to turn young people's sights toward solving issues of climate change and health came from Mr. Chandrasinh Thakor, Deputy Secretary to the Government of Gujarat’s Climate Change Department during Day 1 of the Workshop. Mr. Thakor says all first-year college students at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad are required to pass a 100-point test on climate change.

That’s one way to make sure the next generation is up-to-date on climate-health issues. Around the conference table here in Ahmedabad, all discussion for the next two and a half days will be aimed at imagining ways to help the people of the city thrive in a dramatically warmer future. Today, we will discuss ideas for developing strategies reduce harm from heat in local communities, especially the most heat-vulnerable, and see what opportunities and challenges exist to implementing a successful adaptation plan. Stay tuned!

Health Matters, and So Does Climate Change

2011-03-09T20:33:43Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

Yesterday another scientist reminded me how vital it is to share and discuss the latest research findings on climate change and health.

Professor Donald Roberts testified before the House Energy and Power Subcommittee, and mentioned a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS). I was among the paper’s co-authors; it describes how ragweed pollen seasons have already gotten longer in a swath of Midwestern US states and Canada. That effect is stronger the farther north one goes.

I appreciate Dr. Roberts’ mention of the paper- but need to clarify a couple of points:

If you read his comments about our PNAS paper, he’s not negating the work itself. [“I have reviewed the paper and offer no serious criticisms (p.3).”] Dr. Roberts also says (p. 4), “…I think the scientists have shown an appropriate level of care in their interpretations and conclusions.” We concluded the Abstract by saying, “If similar warming trends accompany long-term climate change, greater exposure times to seasonal allergens may occur with subsequent effects on public health.”

Infectious diseases, which are among Dr Roberts’ main concerns, are very separate issues from the PNAS paper's focus on pollen. There is no mention in our paper of DDT, so what he says about “messages of fear by ideological campaigns against DDT and those for regulating CO2 emissions (p.4)” are misplaced.

He contends that, “Climate change as a threat to public health is, after all, the ultimate message of fear.” I would contend there's no need for fear, unless we do nothing and pretend its effects don't exist. Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, has said, “Climate change is one of the most serious public health threats facing our nation. Yet few Americans are aware of the very real consequences of climate change on the health of our communities, our families and our children.”

If we investigate climate-health linkages, monitor for environmental and health effects, and prepare the public health system and our most vulnerable communities to respond to a changing world – that’s spreading knowledge, not fear.

Climate change is a matter of health. I’m an environmental health scientist, and it’s my duty to share research findings on how environmental changes can affect health. That information could help people prevent illness before it happens. Dr. Roberts may call it activism, but I call it getting the word out.

Trouble In The Air: Warmer Temperatures Lengthen Midwest Ragweed Pollen Season

2011-02-22T00:31:56Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

Spring is just around the corner, even if I can see snowflakes falling today. As part of the annual Rite of Spring, I’ll be calling my physician to get allergy medicine lined up. For me -- as for 36 million other Americans with seasonal allergies - -the approach of warmer weather means (along with daffodils) there’ll soon be spring pollen to deal with.

But a new study just released in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests something more troubling in the air: Warmer weather in the last 15 years has already made autumn ragweed pollen seasons longer --by as much as 13 to 27 days in a swath of Midwestern states from Texas northward into Canada. Ragweed is one of the worst allergic plant offenders- it’s the #1 cause of fall allergies.

I was among the co-authors on the new PNAS study, along with other university researchers and experts from national laboratories. It’s the first time anyone’s been able to pull together enough recent pollen data from a wide area to show that rising temperatures are already affecting pollen season length.

We knew already that springtime was coming 10 to 14 days earlier than it did 20 years ago. But this new work measures the length of the ragweed pollen season in the US for the first time, and finds it's getting longer as temperatures rise, especially the farther north you go. (States like Minnesota and Wisconsin showed some of the strongest effects.) If these warming trends continue (as they’re projected to) under a changing climate, the health of people with severe allergies or asthma could really suffer.

For me, watery, itchy eyes, a runny nose, sneezing and congestion, is a treatable nuisance, though it makes my workdays less productive. However, for an estimated 23 million Americans with asthma (including 7 million kids), about 70% of whom also have allergies, pollen season can be a severe health threat, since pollen can trigger asthma attacks. Allergies & allergy-driven asthma already cost the US $32 billion annually.

I worked on a 2007 NRDC report that looked at second way that a changing climate can impact pollen, air pollution and health. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, makes ragweed and other plants grow lusher, larger, and produce more pollen. Rising temperatures also worsen concentrations of ground-level ozone smog. More than 110 million Americans live in areas where late summer means both unhealthy smog & ragweed pollen. I’ve blogged on this before.

So in the face of longer, more intense airborne pollen and pollution seasons, what are we to do? There are definitely positive steps we can take:

Check out daily, local pollen and air pollution conditions if you or a family member is allergic or has asthma. EPA’s AirNow website and the National Allergy Bureau both provide info.
Change your clothing after spending time outdoors, and wash your hair and bedding to minimize your time in close contact with pollen.
Beyond these and other steps to reduce individual exposures, we need an expanded monitoring network of pollen sample collection sites; more meteorological data stations; systems to gather information on pollen’s local health effects; and more information on carbon pollution emissions sources, too, to better understand their interconnections.

The ways that climate change is impacting the nation’s health are coming into sharper focus. We need to keep our federal agencies’ climate change program funding, and strengthen environmental/health monitoring networks, to help our most vulnerable communities design and implement effective ways to respond to a changing climate.

Is there anything more important to invest in than health?

Republican Budget Could Put the Brakes on Public Health Protections

2011-02-13T16:31:45Z

Kim Knowlton, Senior Scientist, New York

The Continuing Resolution proposed last week by Republicans would undermine EPA programs that have protected the nation’s health for the last 40 years.

The government’s own Office of Management and Budget (OMB) evaluated the job EPA’s been doing (see Laurie Johnson on the analysis). They estimated that EPA’s regulatory work has helped prevent millions of cases of respiratory illnesses each year, along with hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks, even hundreds of thousands of premature deaths annually among Americans.

And as I have said before, carbon pollution (on which there are currently no limits) creates a whole host of health risks: Heat waves lead to increased death and illness; hotter temperatures worsen smog, and carbon dioxide worsens pollen, both of which contribute to respiratory illness; Extreme storms affect health and infrastructure; Insect-borne illnesses can spread more widely; Drinking water can become increasingly contaminated; Water and Food supply security is challenged; and there are large numbers of people around the world (as well as here in the US) who need assistance after each environmental disaster.

We need to continue to find ways to lessen the impacts of global warming for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. Reducing life-threatening carbon pollution can help prevent illness and premature death.

Climate change is a matter of health. Isn’t our kids’ health worth protecting?