wildfire smoke. Drought. Brutal heat. flood. As Californians increasingly feel the health impacts of climate change, state leaders are introducing sweeping policies that they hope will avert the worst effects, and encourage other countries to follow suit. ing.
Several of them attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP28, late last year, where more than 120 countries signed a declaration acknowledging the growing health impacts of climate change and their responsibility to keep people safe.
“Leaders around the world must take this step forward, understanding that climate change is killing and hurting their own people,” said California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot, who represented California in Dubai. “We're here for climate change negotiations.”
Stanford University researchers estimate that as many as 3,000 elderly residents may have died from wildfire smoke-related causes in August and September 2020 alone, when dozens of wildfires broke out around California. There is sex.
California is taking measures to combat climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, including banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and light trucks by 2035 and requiring power companies to increase the share of their electricity supply from renewable sources such as wind and solar. We are taking unique measures to reduce gas emissions. . The policy aims to reduce air pollution in the state. This air pollution consistently ranks among the worst in the nation, especially in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles Basin, and contributes to the premature deaths of thousands of Californians each year.
Regulators estimate that California's climate policies could save $199 billion in costs in hospitalizations, asthma patients, and lost jobs and schools in 2045 alone.
“If we don't take action, there will be public health implications. There will also be huge economic consequences,” said LeAnn Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board, who also attended the meeting. he said.
Crowfoot, Randolph and another attendee, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's tribal affairs secretary Christina Snyder-Ashtari, spoke with KFF Health News Senior Correspondent Samantha Young to discuss California's He explained how he is trying to keep its 40 million residents safe. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What is the biggest health threat posed by climate change to Californians and what is the state doing about it?
Randolph: The biggest challenges are extreme heat and wildfire smoke. And climate change is exacerbating existing health threats. For example, heat increases ozone pollution. What's happening is that we're having more and more extremely hot days. Additionally, while ozone levels and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere have decreased, air quality levels are still exceeded on some days due to an increase in hot days that create further smog.
We have a comprehensive document called the Scoping Plan to tackle climate change. A key part of that is reducing fossil fuel combustion. Fossil fuels affect public health on the ground through air quality, which in turn affects the climate. We are moving toward zero-emission vehicles, renewable energy, and zero-emission spaces and water heaters. All of these strategies move us away from burning fossil fuels.
While California itself cannot tackle climate change around the world, what we can do is support new technologies that can ideally be replicated across the country and around the world. We are promoting the development of zero-emission vehicles, from passenger cars to large vehicles. We are cultivating a market for technologies such as heat pumps that allow us to heat and cool our homes without using gas. All of these need to gain support and form a market. We can create markets that can penetrate other parts of the world.
Snyder Ashtari: Many tribes are being relocated to areas with poor access to water, and that's due to federal and state programs. In other words, the tribe is already living in a place that was designed to be inhospitable to life. Things get worse, and as stressors increase, water dwindles and summers get hotter, Indian Country has become California's most vulnerable island.
Many of our ancestral food sources that tribes have relied on are either not there or present at the wrong times of the year. Salmon populations are on the decline. Indigenous people currently have no access to abalone due to ocean acidification and overfishing. The same goes for seaweed, which is a major dietary supplement. Certain species cannot thrive in changing climates, so rural California doesn't have access to the same types of nutrients as other places. We will have an even greater impact on the health stressors that Indigenous peoples already suffer from, such as high rates of diabetes.
One of the things we've been looking at with tribes is reintroducing traditional practices to address climate issues. We have reintegrated cultural burning practices to eliminate invasive pests through smoke and ensure the forest floor is healthy. We can promote forest health and prevent large wildfires that release carbon into the atmosphere. They can also produce better crops to ensure indigenous peoples have a vital food source. Tribes aren't going anywhere. The rest of us can move anywhere, but the tribe is our ancestral homeland.
Crowfoot: We face multiple overlapping health threats. In California, wildfires, drought, and extreme heat are claiming lives. Wildfires get a lot of attention, especially when they hit a community, which is a big danger. However, the effects of wildfire smoke are less discussed. Dangerous air blankets the state for weeks during the worst of wildfire season. It's a real danger to Californians with pre-existing conditions, the elderly, and children.
As it relates to drought, hundreds of thousands of Californians live in shallow groundwater wells, which leaves them without access to water in their homes during droughts. This has significant health implications for California's most vulnerable, poorest, and most isolated communities. And the intense heat continues. It is now the number one climate-related cause of death in California and other parts of the world.
Building resilience to these climate impacts is a health and safety issue. We have a very clear plan of action. We have water resilience, particularly around water supplies and how to replace the loss of water supplies over the next 20 years. There's one for wildfires. We are spending millions of dollars not only to improve our ability to fight wildfires, but also to protect our communities and improve our landscapes. We are also developing a heatwave action plan to better protect people. This includes everything from recognizing that extreme heat is on the way, providing shelter for people in areas without air conditioning, to working to provide more shade in schools and schools. will appear. street.
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This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
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(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism on health issues and one of KFF's core operating programs. is an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.)
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