Climate Change is Bad for Health - Dr. Ahdoot's Story
This compelling video, featuring Dr. Samantha Ahdoot, highlights some of the ways our changing climate is affecting human health. Some vulnerable populations are particularly at risk, such as our nation’s children.
Dr. Samantha Ahdoot is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and a partner with Pediatric Associates of Alexandria.What Your Doctor Needs to Know About Climate Change
Posted November 27, 2017
Members in ActionSNIPPET:
TG: What’s your biggest concern in the relationship between climate change and health?
MS: The greatest concern is that, unless many more people connect the dots between climate change and the more and more blatant phenomena on the landscape, we may fail to act fast enough. The phenomena include excessive rain storms accompanied by flooding, larger more destructive wildfires, increased frequency of dangerously hot days, and the dramatic spread of ticks and mosquitos that carry illness.
It concerns me that people who are in excellent health may find it difficult to understand that not everyone is like them; in fact, other people are experiencing health harms because of climate change. But luckily, people tend to believe their doctors. Many physicians are very clear about what they are seeing. This explains is why we could get 18 medical societies, including all the largest ones, to come together as a group and
send a clear message to the public and policymakers about the health harms of climate change and the health benefits of climate solutions. The Consortium represents well over half the doctors in the U.S.
We are clear that climate change is harming health today—including mental health–and will be more harmful tomorrow if we don’t act.Read more:https://medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/members-in-action/doctor-needs-know-climate-change/