Today in California, State Senator Fran Pavley chaired a hearing for the state’s Senate Select Committee on Climate Change and AB 32 Implementation, to assess California’s vulnerabilities to climate change as well as the state’s progress on its 2006 climate change legislation. Public Health Institute’s Linda Rudolph, M.D., MPH, testified on the public health risks of climate change in California. Other presenters included Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird, California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols, and Professor Rachel Morello-Frosch from the University of California-Berkeley’s School of Public Health. The hearing looked at rising concerns about extreme weather and short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon. 

Did you know?...By taking action on climate change,  you are protecting human health.

Two fact sheets were developed by our team at ClimateHealthConnect to explain the synergies in climate and health work, give a sense of urgency to the issue, and elaborate on ways to integrate health into climate work, and climate into health work.

The following blog was cross-posted, with the author's permission, from European Voice. 

Reducing greenhouse gases is even better for public health than a European Commission study suggests.

The following blog is a summary of the technical report recently released by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The full report can be found here.

Coming out of the first global Climate and Health Summit on December 5 at COP17, thirty leading health NGOs and organizations from around the world released a Declaration and a Global Call to Action.

Climate change may well be one of the greatest threats to human health in this century. But the good news? Land use and transportation planning efforts now under way offer public health advocates a prime opportunity not only to help mitigate the future health effects of global climate change, but also to advance policies that can help people live healthier lives today.

Last week, Lois Capps (D-CA) reintroduced legislation, the Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act, which calls for a national strategic action plan that would help public health agencies prepare for the health impacts of climate change. In a nation seemingly bent on keeping its head firmly buried in the sand on this issue, this is a welcome move.

Climate change is considered the greatest current threat to public health and to future security. How to secure our future wellbeing under a changing climate has been discussed by leading experts in health, security, the military, economics, and business at the Conference on Health and Security Perspectives of Climate Change in London on October 17th.