Local View: Electric School buses would improve kids’ health, academics
Every school day, the health and wellness of hundreds of thousands of Minnesota’s K-12 students are put at risk. The culprit is harmful diesel emissions from the very school buses we trust to deliver our kids to and from school. As a retired physician and career health professional, and as the parent of an asthmatic… Read more »
COMMENTARY: Climate action is a prescription for better health
Across the country, we are already taking action because cleaning up climate pollution benefits the health of those in our care. We are starting by cleaning up our own house first. The U.S. health care system contributes 8-10% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and produces a lot of waste. So, hospitals and clinics are switching… Read more »
State Legislature looks to ban non-essential PFAS “forever chemicals”
Kathleen Schuler is with the nonprofit Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate. She says studies have linked PFAS to some health effects, including kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, liver damage, and immune dysfunction. “PFAS are referred to as forever chemicals, but they are also the everywhere chemicals.”
Grants could help state catch up with electric school buses
Diesel school buses are probably bad for our kids’ health, with studies suggesting the fumes to be a common cause of asthma. Could changing over to electric buses be the answer? Several states are driving in that direction, and Minnesota seems to be watching other states’ state-funded programs disappear into the distance. … Dr. Daniel… Read more »
Climate justice: Let’s not let white privilege be a barrier to solving the climate crisis
At this point, every one of us has experienced the impacts of climate change, whether it was the smoke from wildfires blanketing Minnesota last summer or the oppressive heat earlier this summer. We are all vulnerable to climate change harms, but the truth is some people are more vulnerable than others. And to build the… Read more »
Rx for Climate & Health equity: The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
A legally binding international climate treaty already exists. The 196 signatories of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement pledged to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 F) compared to pre-industrial times. But the words “fossil fuels,” “coal,” “oil,” or “gas” never even appear in the Paris Agreement, and new fossil fuel infrastructure is still being greenlit across the world, locking… Read more »
A Hotter World Means More Disease Outbreaks in Our Future
As global temperatures have risen in recent decades, so have the number of outbreaks of infectious diseases. SARS, MERS, Zika, West Nile, COVID-19, and now clusters of monkeypox and polio have all recently threatened public health. “The health impacts of climate change are here,” says Dr. Vishnu Laalitha Surapaneni, assistant professor of medicine at the… Read more »
Physicians have an important role to play in dealing with climate change
In Minnesota, Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate, formed in 2015, brings together physicians, nurses and allied healthcare providers to add their voices to the public debate on clean energy and climate change. The thrust of the organization’s work is “education and activation,” says Brenna Doheny, PhD, MPH, executive director. Several physicians, including the co-founders… Read more »
House committee hears that when it comes to climate change, where you live matters
Climate change has been cited as a cause for the increased frequency of some high-visibility disasters like forest fires, storms and floods. But its effects aren’t distributed evenly throughout the state’s population. That’s according to multiple testifiers at Thursday’s meeting of the House Climate and Energy Finance and Policy Committee. Lower-income Minnesota residents and people… Read more »
As global temperatures continue to rise, climate anxiety will be a growing issue for young people, therapists warn
Kristi White, a clinical health psychologist in Minneapolis, also treats many young adults for issues that stem from the changing climate. “Some of the things in the patients that I work with are things like asthma exacerbation due to poor air quality from wildfires [and] concerns around the risk for heat-related illnesses during extreme heat… Read more »
