Climate Health Impacts Can Multiply Local Story Possibilities

A lyme disease warning sign on Long Island, New York. The tick-borne disease has been found in the United States for decades, but it has become more common as climate warming allows more ticks to last through the winter. Photo: Neil R via Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED).

TipSheet: Climate Health Impacts Can Multiply Local Story Possibilities

By Joseph A. Davis

Climate heating is already making people sicker. It’s happening in many ways all over North America. It’s happening now, and it will get worse.

That means environmental journalists can find many local stories if they look. The challenge is to explain some pretty complex science and to help people see how it affects them.

But the climate-health connection is especially newsy because it was featured in one of the recent “theme days” at the just-ended COP28 climate talks in Dubai. And because the bodies are piling up.

 

Why it matters

Nobody wants to get sick, and nobody wants their family, neighbors and other people to get sick.

Some of the diseases we are talking about make people very miserable; some disable them; some kill them. Some already harm millions of people.

 

The healthcare systems of the

United States and other nations are

not always aware of, schooled in

and prepared for these diseases.

 

Yet the healthcare systems of the United States and other nations are not always aware of, schooled in and prepared for these diseases.

It’s not just about antiquated medical education; it’s about a rapidly changing world. Public awareness is part of the equation.

 

The backstory

Even though it’s news now, the climate-health connection has been covered for decades.

It took a long time for climate itself to gain salience as a public concern. (Scientist James Hansen delivered his famous warning to Congress in 1988.) And it took longer for the public health consequences to come more sharply into view.

According to Harvard Professor David S. Jones, deeper study of climate’s health effects began by 1985-1989, with funding by federal agencies. The Centers for Disease Control began working on the climate-health issue years ago as well.

Today, you can find much info on the health-climate connections in the United States by looking at the successive National Climate Assessments, beginning with the most recent one, published in November 2023.

 

Story ideas

There are far more interconnections between climate change and human health than we can outline here. Extreme weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, deluges, blizzards and others — cause much death and injury. Heat waves and excessive heat cause all kinds of insults to the human body.

But recently, some of the ecological changes coming along with climate have gotten headlines, especially for infectious diseases that have new impacts on North America.

As a general matter, you may want to talk to any tropical disease specialists you can find at nearby medical schools or research institutions. We list a few climate-related diseases that may lead to local and regional stories.

• Malaria: Not much malaria has been seen in the United States for a century, unless travelers bring it from abroad. Our health care system gets some credit. But native cases are now being seen in some areas because climate change is bringing in new species and populations of mosquitoes. Check in with your local public health agencies and mosquito control districts.
• Dengue fever: Dengue (also called breakbone fever) is a mosquito-borne viral disease mostly in developing tropical countries that often causes patients to suffer or die. It is increasingly found in the United States — particularly Florida, Texas and Hawaii, plus many of the island territories. Check in with your local public health agencies and mosquito control districts.
• Lyme disease: This tick-borne disease has been in the United States for decades. Undiagnosed and untreated, it can be chronic and debilitating. It is becoming more common as climate warming allows more ticks to overwinter. Contact your local and state public health agencies.
• Valley fever: Valley fever is a serious fungal disease caused by inhalation of dust that contains spores. Historically found in the Southwestern United States, its range has been expanding in recent years, probably because of climate change. Check in with local and state health departments.
• Rocky Mountain spotted fever: This tick-borne bacterial disease can be serious or fatal if not diagnosed and treated quickly. Check in with local or state health departments.
• West Nile virus: This imported mosquito-borne disease is now very common in the United States. Many people have no symptoms, but others get very sick and even die. Check in with your local public health agencies and mosquito control districts.

 

Reporting resources

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: The EPA is one of the earliest agencies to make the climate-health connection and has lots of resources on the topic.
• U.S. Global Change Research Program: A White House-based coordinator of multiple federal agencies’ climate programs, it publishes the national assessment every five years or so, plus a key report on the climate-health link.
• Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health: This offshoot of the World Health Organization promotes making climate part of nations' health planning.
• Yale Climate Connections: This university-affiliated outlet has compiled a collection of books on climate-health connections.
• Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment: This interdisciplinary, interdepartmental program at Harvard’s public health school fosters research and policy studies on the climate-health issue.
• Global Climate and Health Alliance: A policy and advocacy group consisting of health organizations.
• Centers for Disease Control: The CDC, the main federal public health agency, has a major program on how climate affects human health.

[Editor’s Note: For more on this topic, see our Issue Backgrounder “Will Animal-To-Human Disease Transmission Bring the Next Big Pandemic?” and Reporter’s Toolboxes on a new climate vulnerability index, on using CDC data as starting points for reporting environmental health stories, and on asthma data, as well as a Voices of Environmental Justice column on how climate change may exacerbate health risks for the LGBTQ+ community.]

Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 8, No. 46. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.