Doctors Support Curbing Carbon Emissions

By Jonathan Springston, Associate Managing Editor, AHC Media

Several major medical groups, including the American Medical Association, last week filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, in support of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has been fighting litigation targeting an Obama administration environmental proposal.

A sobering report released last week predicts climate change will lead to more illnesses and shorter life spans, among many other problems. After sounding the alarm for years about global warming, the Obama administration last August proposed its Clean Power Plan, which would require the United States to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 32 percent by 2030.

“Every child needs a safe environment. Unfortunately, according to the World Health Organization, more than 80% of the current health burden due to the changing climate occurs in children younger than five years old. Children suffer from allergic and asthmatic diseases, the devastating effects of natural disasters, food and water insecurity, and increased heat-related deaths. Children also breathe faster than adults, spend more time outside and have lungs that are still developing, making them increasingly vulnerable to the environmental effects of global climate change,” the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a statement last August after the administration announced its plan.

However, industry met Obama's proposal with skepticism. In February 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked implementation of the plan. The U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in West Virginia v. EPA on June 2. Judges will determine if the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon emissions from power plants. In their amicus brief, medical groups specifically listed reducing health problems as an important reason to better regulate carbon emissions.

Global warming has been linked to a variety of medical maladies, including respiratory illness, allergies, diarrheal disease, and cardiovascular disease. AHC Media often reports on these conditions in publications such as Internal Medicine Alert, Integrative Medicine Alert, and Clinical Cardiology Alert. Be sure to read future issues of these publications as our physician writers take a closer look at the links between climate change and poor health.