New Resource from PSR- Heat, Fire, Water: How Climate Change Has Created a Public Health Emergency

In a new white paper, Physicians for Social Responsibility Board Member, Dr. Alan Lockwood, has drawn on the content of the three major climate reports published in fall 2018 – the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, the IPCC special report Global Warming of 1.5° C, and the Fourth National Climate Assessment: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States – to create a uniquely focused summary of their health implications. It is organized, as the title suggests, around the major axes of climate change effects in the U.S.:

• Heat, the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S.;
• Water, which is increasingly surging, pouring and flooding, or not falling enough; and
• Fire, whose terrifying flames, sometimes-toxic ashes and far-flung smoke plumes inflict death and disease.

The report examines the health effects of each of these.  It also describes the regional effects of climate change across the U.S., and explains how significant the difference is between average world  temperature increases of 1.5° C and 2°.

We hope you will find this new resource useful.

Physicians for Social Responsibility is a partner of Climate for Health, a coalition of health leaders committed to caring for our climate to care for our health.  Founded by ecoAmerica, Climate for Health offers tools, resources, and communications to demonstrate visible climate leadership, inspiring and empowering health leaders to speak about, act on and advocate for climate solutions. Learn more about our partnership and the resources available to you here.