Harvard C-CHANGE ClimateMD initiative
Photo credit: Michael Goderre, Boston Children's Hospital
We know air pollution is bad for health, that water contamination can cause life-threatening illnesses and heat stress can be deadly. But who is often delivering this message? Scientists. And who is your primary source of information for protecting your health? Doctors. So how can doctors, our most trusted health source, deliver critical information needed to understand how climate change is, and will increasingly, impact your health?
EMA’s collaborator the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard C-CHANGE) engages and empowers medical professionals to bring awareness of the health threats posed by climate change into the doctor’s office and beyond through a new initiative called ClimateMD.
Dr. Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and director of Harvard C-CHANGE, explained the motivation for starting the initiative when he testified before Congress in 2019.
“I’ve seen children whose lungs were so contaminated by pollution they could not breathe. I’ve seen children who no longer have the will to live after surviving floods that washed away their homes and their peace of mind. I’ve held infants whose brains were infected with Zika and what ties this all together is our reliance on fossil fuels, which when extracted from the earth and are burned, damage our children’s health.”
A part of this work, Harvard C-CHANGE engages with health reporters to increase media coverage of climate and health issues, writes a monthly column by Dr. Bernstein for the news service, Coverage, hosts two emergency medicine doctors as fellows, and is co-hosting “The Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice Symposium” on February 13 with all major Boston-area hospitals to educate doctors about how climate change impacts clinical practice and care delivery.
Climate change is the most significant public health challenge of our time. Engaging doctors and the medical community is a critical step towards understanding the threats to our health and developing strategies to protect ourselves and our loved ones. If you are interested in learning more, please visit Harvard C-CHANGE or contact Skye Flanigan (Flanigan@hsph.harvard.edu). Additionally, subscribe to their newsletter the Climate Optimist for your monthly dose of good news.
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