This commentary is by Dr. Megan Malgeri, a primary care physician at UVM Medical Center and an assistant professor at Larner College of Medicine. She practices in Milton.
In 2021, more than 200 medical journals released a joint statement indicating that climate change is the “greatest threat” to global public health. The statement urged world leaders to act, to avoid “catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.”
These are incredibly strong words, indicating the level of concern in the medical community.
Climate change is happening now; I see it increasingly affecting the health of Vermonters in my clinic:
● Lyme disease cases have increased dramatically with the warming climate. Maine, followed by Vermont, have the top rates of this disease in the country, when adjusted for the population. I was speaking with a dermatology colleague who retired in the year 2000. He had never seen a case of Lyme disease contracted locally within the state of Vermont as of that time. My clinic in northern Vermont now addresses hundreds of Lyme-related concerns each year.
● My patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) start to struggle when it’s very hot or humid outside. The heat commonly exacerbates their lung disease, and they may need to seek care in the clinic or emergency room.
● It’s not just my lung disease patients that are hurting — people with virtually any chronic medical illness are more prone to accidents or exacerbations of their ailments on the hottest days of the year. Even with a disease as common as high blood pressure, I have had patients admitted to the hospital from dehydration and kidney injury in the setting of extreme heat. The most vulnerable are the most threatened by these effects — elders, people in poverty, children, and people with disabilities.
If left unchecked, by the time my young children are grown, carbon pollution will threaten basic systems of life that we all need for health and security. We have already seen this play out in Puerto Rico, Florida, and right here in Vermont, with Tropical Storm Irene — and more recently too. If we don’t alter this trajectory, by the time my grandchildren are grown, things will be far worse. We will have mass climate migration, and disruption of the entire food web that we rely on for sustenance.
The Vermont State Climate Summaries in 2022 reported that, using data from NOAA, Vermont has warmed 3 degrees fahrenheit since 1900. If we continue on a high-carbon pathway, predictions signal warming of 12 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. As you can imagine, this would wipe out many plant and animal species, devastate local economies, wipe out entire industries, and be a huge strain on people’s health.
These are threats we don’t want our children and grandchildren to have to live with. And we don’t have to.
Humans are capable of incredible ingenuity. We have the knowledge and solutions at hand already. We need to invest in and scale up these solutions in an equitable way.
We must drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, which are heating our planet and polluting our air. We all acknowledge the tremendous progress that fossil fuels have provided to our world. But now we know that fossil fuels are clearly harming our planet, and the health of the people on it.
We do not want to reverse progress; we want to adapt, so that we can continue to thrive.
This is a time for policies that are innovative and smart — like S.5, the Affordable Heat Act. This bill will cut carbon from the second most carbon-emitting sector of our economy — the thermal sector. It will require fossil fuel importers to assist low- and middle-income Vermonters transition to cleaner, cheaper heating options, which will save people money.
Switching from fossil fuels to other sources of heat will keep more dollars in the state. But vitally, this bill will improve Vermonters’ health through improving indoor and outdoor air quality and combating climate change.
The bill passed the Senate and is now in House deliberations. If passed, the bill will then head to the governor’s desk. He vetoed the first version of this effort, called the Clean Heat Standard. The current version of this bill is smarter and more equitable.
Vermonters, please call and email your representatives to let them know that you care about Vermont being a leader on climate change. Also, let the governor know that you want him to support the bill and that you weren’t happy about his veto last year. We cannot remain stuck using old tools that harm us now. Let’s adapt to the challenge at hand.
If we cannot take a stand together for our climate — protecting the very air we breathe, the water we drink, the land that gives us sustenance and helps give us a strong local economy — we need to ask: What is worth fighting for?
Please ask our representatives to vote for the Affordable Heat Act. The health of Vermonters depends on us taking continued action on climate.
