Climate change becoming serious public health problem

Alternet -According to a recent report published by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, climate change is becoming a serious public health enemy...

The report highlighted three specific ways climate change harms human health:

Direct health harms, including respiratory ailments worsened by air pollution and longer allergy seasons, as well as injuries and deaths caused by extreme weather events like floods, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires. The proliferation of diseases through insects carrying Lyme disease or Zika virus, and through contaminated water and food. Mental health effects, particularly among survivors of extreme weather events, who can experience depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even increases in suicidal thoughts and behavior.

Unfortunately, President Trump isn't listening to these doctors. The president's proposed 2018 budget includes deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, hampering its ability to protect the country from the impacts of climate change, and essentially handing corporations a pass to pillage and destroy the natural environment.

"The amazing progress made by the U.S. EPA over the past 47 years stands at risk, and any reductions in budget or staffing will only further cripple environmental protection efforts, while sending a clear signal to polluters to further contaminate the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, Puget Sound, as well as our rivers, streams and wetlands," said John O’Grady, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, in a recent press statement.

In another anti-health, anti-environment move, the Trump administration last month violated the Clean Air Act when it suspended critical protections against methane leaks and other dangerous air pollution from the oil and gas industry.

"In its haste to do favors for its polluter cronies, the Trump EPA has broken the law," said Meleah Geertsma, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which filed a lawsuit against the EPA for the decision. "The Trump administration does not have unlimited power to put people’s health in jeopardy with unchecked, unilateral executive action like this. Stopping methane leaks is a no-brainer—avoiding wasted gas, creating jobs, fighting climate change and cutting cancer-causing pollution all at once."