Under the Weather: The Climate Crisis is a Health Crisis

As the planet warms, the story of climate change is increasingly becoming a story about human health. Rising temperatures, wildfire smoke, flooding, and shifting disease patterns are no longer distant threats; they are everyday realities. The climate crisis is reshaping health care systems, exposing inequalities, and forcing doctors and policymakers to rethink some of their practices. Medical schools are beginning to adopt climate as part of their curricula, yet such education is widely variable across the country. So what policy and system changes might help address both the climate and health crises at the same time?

Episode Guests:

Jeni Miller, Executive Director, Global Climate and Health Alliance

Cecilia Sorensen, Director, Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, Columbia University 

Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, President and CEO, PAI

For show notes, transcript, and related links, visit climateone.org/podcasts

Highlights:

00:00 – Intro

03:30 – Cecilia Sorensen on consulting for a Grey’s Anatomy episode on heat

07:00 – Climate impact she’s seen in the ER

10:00 – Medical education is variable across the country, including climate awareness

16:00 – Importance of public health and the role of preventive medicine

21:00 – Jeni Miller on interconnections between climate and human health

29:30 – Climate crisis puts pressure on global health systems

34:30 – Ways health care systems can better prepare for climate impacts

44:30 – Connection between climate change and reproductive/sexual health

51:30 – Climate change exacerbates existing inequalities for women and girls around the world

56:00 – Navigating efforts by the Trump administration to increase fertility and birth rate while cutting social services

58:30 – Climate One More Thing

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