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"Getting old is a job." This is Ms. S' favorite thing to say to me. I smile, extremely glad to hear these familiar words from my patient, a sign that she is finally feeling like herself again.
On one of the hottest June months on record last year, she missed her bus to her appointment. But in spite of her 68 years, swollen ankles, and use of a cane, Ms. S walked the mile to the clinic.
When she walked into the office that day, her clothes were drenched in sweat. She was barely able to speak, and despite being supported by her cane, she looked like she was going to faint. The signs of heat exhaustion were clear. It took over an hour of resting in the air-conditioned clinic room, covered in cold packs, and drinking fluids, before she was finally feeling better.
There has been an approximate two degree Fahrenheit global rise in temperature over the past 150 years due to the increased burning of fossil fuels, which releases heat trapping emissions (aka greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere. This warming has led to more extreme heat days occurring. And with this extreme heat, doctors have seen an onslaught of health risks, including heart disease, kidney disease and even death. The latest U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis report confirmed the diagnosis, "Climate change has caused adverse impacts on human health."
The extreme heat is what I was particularly concerned about that day. On her way out, I arranged a taxi for Ms. S, not wanting her to be out in the heat for too long. While she was grateful, I knew how little this gesture meant. It was only June. One ride home in an air-conditioned vehicle was like putting a Band-Aid on a hemorrhaging wound.
When I treat patients like Ms. S, I consider how climate change has become a partisan issue. It was not always this way. In 1988, former President George H.W. Bush told voters, "Those who think we are powerless to do anything about the 'greenhouse effect' are forgetting about the 'White House effect.'"
But this promise to address global warming was short-lived. The subsequent rapid evolution of global warming as a political issue, versus an environmental one, was spurred on by a vast and well-orchestrated disinformation campaign by fossil fuel companies. And decades later it continued, diving deeper and deeper into the realms of partisanship.
According to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 64 percent of moderate Democrats cite climate change as one of the most important issues in deciding how to vote, and only 26 percent of moderate Republicans said it was "one of several important issues" when voting. This partisan divide, even among moderate members of both groups, undermines the realities of climate change's bipartisan impact on health.
Recognizing the public health concerns of a warming world, doctors, nurses, and medical students across the country are advocating for environmental legislation, whether in California, Georgia, or Florida. In Virginia, we met with state delegates about the importance of upholding state climate policy to protect the health of our most vulnerable populations—student athletes, babies, older adults, and our communities impacted by a legacy of environmental racism. We spoke to legislators not as Democrats or Republicans, but rather as concerned clinicians who want our patients to live in a healthier environment.
For Ms. S, who lives alone on the top floor of her apartment building, more extreme heat days are a matter of life and death, not politics. I recently saw her again and she expressed concern for this coming summer, which she read would be "even hotter" than last year. After we discussed ways to protect herself from the heat, she reminded me that getting old is a job.
As I watched her walk away, her ankles still swollen and her cane supporting her, I considered how much harder climate change is making her "job." For patients like Ms. S, every fraction of a degree increase influences the number of extreme heat days she, and everyone else, is exposed to. Climate change needs to stop being labeled as part of the progressive agenda and placed back on the "every agenda." The time is now to come together and protect everyone's health.
Neelu Tummala is an ENT surgeon, clinical assistant professor of surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and is co-Director of the Climate Health Institute at George Washington University.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Update (4/19/23, 7:32 AM EST): Different figures by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication survey were highlighted.
