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Extreme heat waves, storms, and wildfires; disease outbreaks, water shortages, and crop loss; tick-borne illnesses and asthma—these are just some visible signs of a changing climate. Few physicians have been trained to recognize the potent health consequences—allergies that are no longer just seasonal, athletes suddenly finding it hard to breathe, patients who can’t get ne...
As climate change increasingly becomes a fact of daily life, the health hazards of rising sea levels, catastrophic storms, water and food shortages, respiratory and vector-borne diseases, and temperature extremes are coming into sharper focus. Military leaders are warning that climate change could result in a refugee crisis of “unimaginable scale,” and some experts believe...
Cities are responsible for 70 percent of global carbon emissions, and by 2050, two out of every three people will live in one. Fortunately, cities are getting serious about environmental footprint — New York announced its own Green New Deal, Melbourne aims to be carbon neutral by 2020, and Los Angeles will use 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. Mayors are often more nim...
Climate change is a threat multiplier with a disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations. Girls and women, who are denied equitable access to education and economic opportunity in many parts of the world, are most likely to experience the far-reaching effects of a warming planet. Advocates are trying to level the playing field with projects designed to empower the fe...
Health systems contribute significantly to the forces driving climate change, given the vast quantities of energy they consume and the enormous volumes of waste they generate. In the US, the health sector produces eight percent of the nation’s total emissions, while Brazilian hospitals account for 10 percent of that country’s energy use. Health systems can reduce their car...
As secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres led the global adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. But she was not always so hopeful, and recalls a turning point as she consciously shifted her attitude from despair to stubborn optimism. Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come sits down with Figueres to reve...
As the United States leaves the Paris Agreement, how will the leadership vacuum be filled? Will China continue to surge ahead, tackling air pollution and investing in renewable energy? Will India soon abandon its commitments, favoring coal development over clean air? If choices that individual countries make in regard to their energy mix have planet-wide consequences, does...
Can a transformative solution built on the conservative principles of free markets and limited government save the planet? Now that the United States is backing out of the Paris climate accord, many believe that any significant reduction to greenhouse gas emissions must be led by the business community. Can such a business-led effort to promote carbon dividends — carbon ta...
Our changing climate represents one of the greatest challenges to health for the 21st century. Though all of humankind is at risk, communities with weak health and public health infrastructure are the least equipped to cope with the impacts. We must take urgent steps now to develop effective, long-term, and sustainable climate health action. Presented by CDC Foundation.
The impact of climate change is dire: floods, drought, fire, hurricanes, deforestation, degraded water systems, agricultural devastation, and refugee crises. No one will escape the health effects, as respiratory, cardiovascular, and infectious disease rates rise, water and food shortages widen, and mental health harms escalate. But communities with weak infrastructure, fra...
With crop production increasingly threatened by unpredictable weather and a world population expected to grow 30 percent by midcentury, how are we going to feed everyone? The race to reinvent the global food system is on, and solutions you’ve probably never heard of are already in play. One company is tackling problems around industrial agriculture by growing cell-based me...
The recent leaps of science—sequencing the human genome, advancing the world-changing technology of CRISPR, deepening knowledge of the brain—owe much to Francis Collins’s brilliant mind and steady hand. Who better, then, to talk about what transformative discoveries come next? Genomics, immunotherapy, precision medicine, new uses for mRNA technology, and other interdiscipl...
Jeffrey Sachs is distressed about the political and social atmosphere in the United States.
Many experts argue that massive government mobilization on the scale of World War II deployment is needed to address the catastrophe of climate change. Such is the scope of the Green New Deal, a policy calling for 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, universal health care, living wages, and jobs guarantees. But some economists argue it could cost between $51 trillion and...
Worldwide, 10 cities have named Chief Heat Officers to address the growing threat of extreme heat. Marta Segura is leading the way in Los Angeles by connecting equity, health, and climate data to save lives and build more resilient communities. Learn how the city is making progress in the face of rising temperatures.
Social entrepreneurs Anne Kelly of Ceres and Rebecca Onie of Health Leads discuss how they’ve made unlikely allies in unlikely places, despite working on hot-button issues in a difficult political climate. By meeting people, practitioners, policymakers, and leaders where they are, Ceres and Health Leads have made considerable progress on two of the most urgent and universa...
How can we unlock the power of entrepreneurship to widen access to health care, close gender disparity, and increase prosperity in the global South? Hear from expert voices and innovators on tools to address social, economic, and environmental challenges in developing economies.