Climate Change Update: Climate Change Threatens Health

Right In Your Backyard: Climate Change Threatens Health | Kim Knowlton's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC: "Today, NRDC is launching a new web tool called “Climate Change Threatens Health.” These pages (www.nrdc.org/climatemaps ) bring the effects of climate change down to the local level. Users can zoom in on 5 US maps, see how their health is vulnerable to climate change, and learn about what’s needed to protect their families and reduce climate change.

The picture taking shape across the country shows some communities drought-stricken and stressed for adequate safe, clean water supplies; others coping with historic flooding; hotter, drier summers, with greater wildfire risks and more air pollution; most of the nation sweltering under extreme heat; and residents in many states hearing the buzz of mosquito activity for longer and longer seasons each year. Many areas face a combination of these multiple climate-health vulnerabilities.

The medical and national security sectors of our economy have already recognized the need to prepare for the health-related impacts of climate change. It’s time to devote more resources and funding to climate-health preparedness in the new, more volatile climate. "