Climate & Health Meeting: How the Climate Crisis Affects Public Health

In an effort to provide a crucial platform for the diverse stakeholders in the public health and climate communities to come together around solutions, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, the American Public Health Association (APHA), The Climate Reality Project, Harvard Global Health Institute, the University of Washington Center for Health and the Global Environment and Dr. Howard Frumkin, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, will host a Climate & Health Meeting that will take place on February 16, 2017 at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Supported by the Turner Foundation and other organizations, the one-day event will fill the gap left by the recently-canceled Climate & Health Summit originally to be hosted and sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others.

Left unchecked, our changing climate will not only exacerbate existing health threats, from respiratory problems to heat stress, it will give rise to new ones, exemplified by the recent spread of the Zika virus into new areas. The Climate & Health Meeting will address these concerns, bringing together diverse stakeholders who are facing climate-related public health issues on a daily basis.

Given the expedited timeframe of the event, the meeting will not seek to replace the full three-day conference originally planned by the CDC. However, the event will preserve the focus of the CDC conference and will be a substantive working session for participants, providing a crucial platform for members of public health professions, the climate community, and officials tasked with responding to local health problems, to come together around solutions.

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