October 31, 2024
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Vote for a healthy climate for our children
The 2024 presidential election will have a huge impact on the climate, children’s health and future
Tourists walked on the National Mall as smoke from Canadian wildfires caused pungent smells and foggy conditions in Washington, DC, June 7, 2023. Washington, D.C., authorities warned that the air quality was “unhealthy for people with heart and lung conditions and for the elderly.” , children, and youth, and all outdoor activities in public schools, including sports classes, have been canceled.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
For America’s children, this election will be one of the most consequential in our nation’s history. Climate change is taking a huge toll on children’s health, and this election will decide whether we will continue to curb fossil fuel pollution and slow global warming, or whether we will reverse hard-won gains in recent years with catastrophic results. It will be decided.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, dismissed global warming as a “scam” and vowed to aggressively expand oil and gas drilling if elected. He has pledged to reverse or repeal the Biden administration’s clean energy and climate policies, especially in 2022, which have provided about $370 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to clean renewable energy. Targeting the Inflation Control Act (IRA). The second Trump administration’s deregulatory roadmap, dubbed “Project 2025,” similarly focuses on unlimited fossil fuel production and the repeal of the IRA and other climate and environmental regulations.
By contrast, Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris describes climate change as an “existential” threat. As vice president, she cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the IRA and supported new emissions standards to curb pollution from oil and gas operations, cars, trucks, and dirty power plants. Harris announced more than $1 billion in grants to states in 2022 to address flooding and heatwaves worsened by climate change, and the impact of climate change and fossil fuel pollution on marginalized communities. has championed environmental justice programs that alleviate
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Researchers like me, who study the health effects of climate change and air pollution on children from in utero to adolescence, know that climate change is doubling the threat and affecting nearly every child in the United States and around the world. found to be at risk for at least one disease. Risks exacerbated by climate: extreme heat, severe storms and flooding, wildfires, food insecurity, and insect-borne diseases.
The toll on children’s physical and mental health is significant and growing. More babies are being born prematurely or with low birth weight because mothers are exposed to intense heat and bushfire smoke for long periods of time during pregnancy. Infants, toddlers, and adolescent athletes can experience hyperthermia, kidney disease, and even death from exposure to intense heat. Each year, wildfires in the western United States expose more than 7 million children to lung-damaging smoke that often causes asthma attacks. Infectious diseases like Lyme disease are increasing among children, primarily due to climate change. Children have also experienced physical and psychological trauma due to severe storms and floods, with many suffering from PTSD and depression as a result. Awareness of the health impacts of climate change increases children’s risk of anxiety and other mental health problems, with a recent survey showing that almost half of young people say worries about climate change are having a negative impact on their daily lives. The answer was yes. Exposure to extreme heat can reduce a child’s cognitive function, causing a decline in concentration, learning ability, and academic performance, which can affect future income.
Air pollution is now recognized as a parallel health crisis, primarily caused by fossil fuel emissions. Air pollution has long been recognized as a trigger for asthma attacks in children, but it is now understood to be a direct cause of asthma and other respiratory diseases. Everything from infant deaths and childhood asthma to mental health conditions are linked to air pollution. Like climate change, exposure to air pollution is impacting children’s ability to learn. In a New York City study, my colleagues and I found that children exposed to air pollution from automobiles, construction, and industry before birth had lower IQ scores and academic achievement.
While all children are vulnerable and low-income, black and Hispanic children are disproportionately exposed to air pollution in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Discriminatory policies such as redlining create urban heat islands in communities of color, with fewer trees and more shaded areas.
On the healthy side, the Inflation Control Act’s climate and energy provisions will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion metric tons in 2030, meeting our nation’s goal of at least a 50% reduction in emissions. By then, the IRA has also significantly reduced levels of respirable particulates, resulting in up to 4,500 premature deaths, 119,000 asthma attacks, around 179,000 respiratory symptoms and bronchitis, and thousands of hospitalizations each year. This will likely prevent visits to the respiratory emergency department. Avoided deaths would be concentrated in communities of color, which have historically experienced the greatest harm from air pollution. The economic impact is estimated to reach $49 billion in 2030 alone. In the same year, the IRA’s global climate benefits amounted to $137 billion.
This is not the first time that a policy has been shown to have significant health and economic benefits. The U.S. Clean Air Act and its amendments reduced domestic emissions of common air pollutants by an average of 78% from 1970 to 2020. In 2020 alone, Clean Air Act programs delivered net economic benefits to public health. Lives are saved, hospital visits are avoided, and schools are reduced. Up to $3.8 trillion in storage days and more than $21 billion in climate-related economic damage averted.
Northeastern U.S. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative requires power plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which will reduce pollution and save an estimated 830 premature deaths and 12,000 total heart attacks, respiratory illnesses and premature births and low birth weight births were avoided. , for asthma and autism spectrum disorders.
Government policies can protect our health and economy, and the biggest beneficiaries are children. This election will impact the current and future health of our children.
This is an opinion and analysis article and the views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the author. scientific american.
