Right now, we can see that a changing climate is affecting our health. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that last year, the US experienced 22 different events that billion dollar weather and climate disasters last year. One of the events was Hurricane Sally, which made landfall over Gulf Shores, AL, and dropped 3-7 inches of rain over much of Georgia. In previous years, Georgia also experienced major damage from hurricanes Michael and Irma, which caused major flooding and caused large amounts of damage to Georgia’s agricultural regions.
Georgia (and North Carolina) also experienced major wildfires in 2016, which brought high levels of smoke to the northern part of the state. We are also experiencing higher background temperatures, which can exacerbate heart and lung conditions, and cause death.
The same fossil fuels that make greenhouse gases also make air pollution that is killing us in Georgia, causing more asthma, more asthma attacks, more heart disease and heart attacks, strokes, dementia, low birth-weight, damaged lungs in children, and much more. PM2.5 from fossil fuels cause 13% of all deaths in the US each year, and NO2 air pollution causes 1.6% of all deaths. Air pollution and climate are estimated to cost the US at least $800 billion per year in health-related costs. Healthy air is just as important as checking blood pressure or cholesterol for preventing deaths. It’s why we say #HealthyAirIsHealthCare.
Right now there are several infrastructure bills in Congress, which would bring clean energy and clean transportation to our country, and help our economy by creating more jobs that pay well. Georgia has several leading clean transportation companies, including Heliox which just announced its new North American headquarters here.
07/15/2021
