October 19, 2022 | Originally published in MedPage Today
By: Yvonne Collins, MD
Mary Williams* saved for 15 years to purchase a home. She found a small house in South Shore (on Chicago’s south side), made an offer, and achieved her dream. A massive rainstorm flooded her basement 8 months later. So, Williams reached out to her insurance company only to find out floods were not covered. Calls to FEMA and her alderman received no response. She found herself without the money to repair her damaged, mold-infested basement. Williams also has a history of asthma, and the mold caused increasingly severe respiratory problems requiring two hospitalizations. Because her physician determined that she could not safely remain in that environment, Williams eventually had to leave — losing both her savings and her home
Williams is not alone. In a warming world, more Americans face threats to their health and wellbeing. Greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are leading to extreme weather, flooding, and rising sea levels, among other planetary changes. Those changes affect human health in several ways, both direct and indirect.
Indeed, within a decade, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per…READ THE FULL ARTICLE>
Yvonne Collins, MD, is a gynecologic oncologist and serves as the chief medical officer of the CountyCare Health Plan in Chicago, Illinois. She is currently a climate, health, and equity fellow with the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.