Global Warming and Your Health

Posted on | November 29, 2006 | Comments Off on Global Warming and Your Health

This week’s Health Politics program about global warming may give you some hope that a plan of attack — one that would better control emissions, help us consume less energy, and might involve changes to public policy — is finally coming together. This, of course, is good news.

But I realize you might be asking yourself, “Why is a program called Health Politics talking about an environmental issue like global warming?” The answer, for me, is simple. Everything that happens in our environment affects our health. Our environment is one of the many things that allows us to be well. Obviously, most people know the basics, like polluted air can be harmful to the lungs and rising temperatures will lead to heat-related illnesses. But global warming, specifically, has taken the relationship between “environment” and “health” to a whole new level.

Until a plan is put in place that can reverse the damage we’ve already caused, global warming and climate change will continue to progressively affect our most basic life needs — clean water and adequate food supply.

This is why it’s crucial that the global warming plan that’s developing becomes real to every single human being. Each of us must find a way to be a full participant in the effort to combat global warming. It’s not all on government, corporations and other nations. As I mentioned in this week’s program, even focusing on seemingly small things like the types of light bulbs we use and how our houses are insulated can make a true, tangible difference.

If you have suggestions for other ways viewers can do their part, I’d like to hear them. Feel free to use the “comments” section below.