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1/ Really important new report on climate change and children’s health today from @EPA - it’s not an easy report to read, but it’s a necessary one. epa.gov/cira/climate-c…
2/ We know that children are uniquely vulnerable to climate change, because their bodies are still growing and developing. And health impacts during childhood can affect an entire lifetime.
3/ The report anticipates potential climate impacts for children in the US at 2 and 4 degrees of warming - we don’t know exactly when these levels of warming will happen, some estimates suggest we’ll reach 2 degrees of warming by 2040. (My own kids will be 24 in 2040.)
4/ Based on the best-available literature & data we have today, this report looks at what might happen to the generations of children who will be born later this century - our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
5/ The baseline period used as a reference is 1986-2005 (if you’re in your 30s or early 40s like me, that was *your* childhood).
6/ And of course, the report offers insights as to how climate change is impacting children’s health today - climate change is already here.
7/ Five key climate change-related stressors are considered: heat, air quality, changes in seasonality (think: more pollen), infectious disease (esp. Lyme disease), and coastal flooding.
8/ The report also considers how certain vulnerable populations of children, like children of color, kids in low-income communities, and children in households that speak limited English, may be impacted. #healthequity
9/ The report is dense, and I won’t go into all of the key findings, but here are a few that really stood out to me on a personal level:
10/ At 2 degrees of warming, the cost of learning losses due to extreme heat - in terms of future income losses - may reach up to $6.9 billion. My new home state of Vermont may be among the hardest-impacted by this, in large part because most schools and homes here lack A/C.
11/ Climate change will make air quality worse. At 4 deg. of warming, there may be up to 89,600 new cases of pediatric asthma *per year* in the US due to increases in particle pollution & ozone, as well as increases in premature death among newborns. This is truly heartbreaking.
12/ On the flooding front, without additional adaptation, approximately 185,000 (159,000 to 437,000) children are estimated to experience complete home loss from coastal flooding at 50 cm of global sea level rise - 13,000 of them from my native North Carolina.
13/ You can see why this report is hard to read - all of these impacts are heartbreaking to think about. And they’re why *now* is the time to do everything we can to protect our children’s right to a livable future. There is so much at stake.
14/ If you want to learn more about the report but don’t feel like reading all 108 pages of it, @EPA is holding a community briefing on the report on 5/22, which you can register for here: eventbrite.com/e/epa-climate-…
15/ And if you want to take action - join a climate group. At @CleanAirMoms, we're working every day to push for strong pollution protections for our children’s health because we know how much is at stake - we have multiple active petitions you can sign: momscleanairforce.org/petitions/
16/ …and our members will be testifying at multiple EPA hearings over the next month, asking for stronger mercury pollution protections from power plants, stronger tailpipe pollution protections for cars & trucks, and more.
17/ We’re also advocating for resources for youth mental health in a changing climate in partnership with @Schools4Climate, and you can sign our joint petition on mental health & climate education here: act.momscleanairforce.org/PNZADl0?_gl=1*…
18/ The bottom line of this new report is simply that we have to act on climate, and keep acting. This report makes me more grateful than ever for all of the incredible climate activists I know, especially those that are doing this work while raising children. THANK YOU. ❤️❤️❤️
19/ Your work matters to children and other people you will never meet, so keep going. #climatechange #childrenshealth #climateaction #climateparents #parentinginachangingclimate #momscleanairforce
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