A few examples from our practices: We have seen a 12-year-old boy forced to quit his beloved baseball team because air pollution is now so extreme that simply being on the baseball field makes him sick. A 30-year-old woman whose asthma is exacerbated so extremely by poor air quality and smoke exposure that she needed multiple rounds of oral steroids — which led to weight gain and worsened her depression. A mother who couldn’t sleep at night because every time she closed her eyes she relived the night she and her young children were evacuated and then lost their home to extreme flooding. An 80-year-old man whose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease worsened dramatically after his exposure to wildfire smoke, to the point where he could no longer help care for his grandchildren.
This is already happening. And this is just the beginning.
Protesters block traffic on California Street as part of the Global Climate Strike in San Francisco on Sept. 25.
Severe weather will cause more injuries and fatalities. Worsening air pollution caused by increased temperatures and smoke exposure will result in more severe exacerbations of asthma and heart disease. Rising temperatures are already causing dehydration, heatstroke, and heat-related death, especially in children and the elderly. Tropical storms are larger, more intense with higher wind velocity and greater rainfall. Forests are migrating as average temperatures change (either increasing or decreasing)
The extent of infectious diseases such as Zika, malaria, and dengue fever will increase, putting hundreds of thousands of more people at risk of these diseases. Seasonal allergies will become more severe and last year-round.
The mental health and sense of well-being of all people will be severely compromised. The most vulnerable among us — the youngest, the poorest, and the most disenfranchised — will be hurt the most.
As physicians, we take an oath to treat disease and prevent human suffering. Our office waiting rooms are already filling up with patients whose health and lives are being irreversibly damaged by climate change. The medicines we have at our disposal are not strong enough.
Simply put, we will not be able to treat the disease caused by climate change.
We are also excited and galvanized. Four million people worldwide and 400,000 people in the U.S. took to the streets to demand action on Sept. 20. Many more partook in conferences and strikes this past week. Greta Thunberg has becoming a household name.
The message is clear: we must cut our greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible to prevent catastrophic human sickness, suffering and premature deaths.
The key question is, what can we do?
Regardless of what you believe, a climate change naysayer or a 'greenie" commonsense reveals at how the earth looked from space 200 years ago, or now with the view from the international space station, the lights on earth reveal a transformation. The earth is alight with a glow that was not present before. Any populated area has been transformed at night by lights produced by energy from mostly fossil fuels.
First, every person alive right now needs to understand that this is about our health and futures generations (ie, your descendants) Climate change is making us sick and will only make us sicker.
Open Forum: Climate change is already affecting your health - SFChronicle.com.
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