Climate Change

Courses tagged with "Climate Change"

Health Impacts of Federal Climate Investments Part 1

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) together represent the largest investment in climate resilience in the nation's history and are providing much-needed resources to communities across the country. The IRA alone delivers nearly $400 billion in federal investments to rapidly accelerate the transition toward zero-emission vehicles, reduce climate pollution and carbon emissions, improve air quality, and strengthen communities. These historic investments present an opportunity to make lasting, positive health outcomes for all Americans. This webinar provides an overview of how climate investments improve health outcomes, examples of local benefits to communities, and opportunities for nurses to promote implementation at a state and local level. 

PFAS in Michigan: From Education to Action

PFAS are commonly known as ‘forever chemicals’ due to their extreme persistence in the environment and human body. PFAS cross the placental barrier, accumulate in the growing fetus, are excreted in breast milk, and have been linked with a wide range of health effects including high cholesterol, several cancers, infertility, and low birth weight. This webinar discusses the scope of PFAS exposure in Michigan as well as resources for the clinician, including ANHE’s PFAS Toolkit, as well as advocacy opportunities.

Finding Health in Nature

This presentation discusses the science of spending time in nature and its impact on physiological and psychological health. Additionally, we share information regarding an ongoing study that involves participants spending time in the forest. Our sources of data include psychometric measures of recovery, heart rate variability, and salivary hormones including cortisol and oxytocin.

Author Talk - “Preventing and Healing Climate Traumas” and the Federal “Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act”

This presentation discusses the information provided in ITRC Coordinator Bob Doppelt’s new book Preventing and Healing Climate Traumas: A Guide to Building Resilience and Hope in Communities (Routledge Publishing). It describes the urgent need, methods, and multiple benefits of using a public health approach in communities to build population mental wellness and resilience for the climate emergency. During the presentation, Doppelt also describes how the “Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act of 2023” that has been introduced in Congress would fund and support these community initiatives. 

Advancing Climate Change in the Nursing Curriculum

This workshop introduces issues of climate change to nursing faculty, establishing the connection between climate change and health across the lifespan.

Climate Crisis: A Call for Nursing Action

Climate change is impacting the health of our communities. From increasing temperature, to more extreme weather events, to rişing sea levels, health impacts are being felt globally. Nurses, as the most trusted professionals, are in a unique position to advocate for climate health.

Plastic Pollution and the Impact on Human Health

Plastic pollution harms the climate, wildlife, ecosystems, and human health.  It is estimated that of the 14 000 tons of waste generated daily in US health care facilities, about 20% to 25% is plastic. Yet, the majority of plastics, including those used in health care, are not recycled and have created a plastics crisis for our environment. This webinar will provide an overview of the health harms from plastics and how plastic is a hazard at every stage of its life cycle - beginning with extraction of the coal, oil and gas from which nearly all plastics are made, production and use, and to the disposal of plastic waste. Speakers will also discuss how medically unnecessary plastics in the healthcare sector are contributing to the plastics crisis.

Climate Readiness: Preparation is Key

Climate impacts are striking at an alarming rate within the United States. Fires and Maui, Burning Man in Nevada with rain and sheltering in pace, Hurricane Idalia, and those left in her wake are the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Nurses can be pivotal in preparation long before the event or disaster strikes. Understanding the risks your patient population may encounter is the first step. Tools such as the ones published by Americares are just one example of timely patient education. This session discusses how one primary care nurse practitioner approaches climate change and the changes necessary in primary care.

The Green Cars for Kids program: A climate, health, and equity solution

In this seminar, we introduce a new program that addresses climate, health and equity, Green Cars for Kids. This Florida-based nonprofit works to create a world where every child and pregnant person reaches their full health potential unhampered by transportation barriers. Our program coordinates transportation for low-income expectant mothers and children to healthcare visits using electric vehicles. The goals of the program are to improve the health of pregnant women and children by breaking down transportation barriers. By using electric vehicles, we contribute to reducing air pollution and carbon emissions that impact the health of frontline communities most.

Rethink Plastic

Plastic pollution is a global crisis affecting the health of the planet and all life on Earth from plankton to humans. Like climate change, plastic pollution is a result of a dedicated effort by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries to exploit a natural resource to unnatural consequences. This webinar will explore the health implications of plastics and options for effective change.

From Concern to Action: ​Health Professionals Leading the Charge for Extreme Heat Protection

In this webinar, our expert panel addresses how extreme heat impacts health and our healthcare system, explores the burden on the communities most at risk, and discusses the recently released OSHA heat standards. We also share advocacy opportunities and resources for health organizations and individual health professionals to engage in this important work.

Agricultural Pathways of PFAS Exposure: Opportunities for Advocacy in Maine

PFAS have recently been recognized as contaminants in agriculture and are growing as a contaminant of concern for the food supply with PFAS contamination negatively impacting farmers and communities. PFAS are commonly known as ‘forever chemicals’ due to their extreme persistence in the environment and human body. PFAS cross the placental barrier, pass to the growing fetus, and are excreted in breast milk. PFAS have been linked with a wide range of health effects including high cholesterol, several cancers, infertility, and low birth weight. This webinar discusses how Maine’s farmers, policy-makers and scientists are collaborating to solve this problem. This webinar is intended to discuss the scope of PFAS exposure in Maine’s agricultural community. The webinar will also list resources for the clinician, including ANHE’s PFAS Toolkit, as well as discuss advocacy opportunities.

Nursing, Climate Change and Health in Nevada

This seminar discusses climate concerns specific to Nevada, how these concerns impact public health, and what nurses can do about it. Network and learn strategies from ANHE staff and local Nevada health care providers and public health advocates on how to advocate for healthy patients and healthy environments.

Just Transition Webinar

In celebration of Labor Day, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments hosted a special webinar event, Just Transition as a Health, Climate, and Workers Rights Solution: Lessons from the Labor Movement, on September 6th, 2022 at 3 - 4 pm ET/12 - 1 pm PT. The urgency of the climate crisis is creating a need to swiftly transition in an equitable way to clean and renewable energy to limit climate impacts. Doing so at the pace required calls for a just transition - a plan to move the economy away from its current extractive, fossil-fuel reliance to one that is robust and sustainable and places the health of people, workers, communities, and the planet as its priority.

On this webinar, speakers from the Labor Network for Sustainability share more information about their recent work around just transition in California and nationwide. This will include an overview of the Young Worker Listening Project, a survey and interview process of workers across economic sectors who have been mobilizing their co-workers, pushing their union locals, and showing up in their communities to take action at the intersection of workers’ rights and the climate crisis. Complete the webinar to learn more about how nurses can support a just transition framework and build and strengthen relationships among the labor, climate, and environmental justice movements as they engage in climate solutions.

Climate & Health with Georgia Nurses Association

This seminar, jointly hosted by ANHE and the Georgia Nurses Association, explores the practical health impacts of climate change. Our first panelist, Roxana Chicas, defines the scope of the problems caused by climate change. It brings economic distress, threatens mental health, and disproportionately affects communities of color. In health, it disrupts healthcare-related supply chains. LaShea Haynes, our second panelist, elaborates on the unique position of low-income and marginalized communities in the intersection of health and climate. In particular, she stresses that we must reach out directly to these communities, as opposed to relying on assumptions of their needs. Our third panelist, Cary Ritzler, discusses clean energy systems and relevant legislation that may promote or threaten them. She stresses the individual's role in informing their community and engaging with their elected leaders. At the end of the seminar, the panelists respond to a few questions.

COP26 - Nursing Leadership at the Intersection of Climate & Health: Influencing Policy & Systems Change

The Alliance of Nurses for Health Environments hosts a special launch event of the “Global Nurse Agenda for Climate Justice” ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Climate justice has become a driving force for innovation in science and is at the forefront of the environmental justice movement and nurses are in a key position to advance climate justice in collaboration with the communities we practice in. In the development of this agenda, nursing organizations around the world have gathered together to stimulate a global dialogue on climate justice, center marginalized voices in climate justice decision making, and collaborate through research, education, and practice to advance climate justice action globally. On this webinar, speakers share more information about the Agenda, how nurses are collaborating on a global scale, and their stories at the intersection of climate justice, health, and nursing.

Arizona Climate, Health, and Nursing Action

In this webinar, Arizona nurses discuss the intersection of climate and health. The presentation outlines climate concerns specific to Arizonans, how they impact public health, and action steps that nurses can take.

Briefing for Nurses: Report on the Just Transition Listening Project

As the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasizes, we need to swiftly transition to clean and renewable energy to limit climate impacts. Doing so at the pace required calls for a just transition - a plan to move the economy away from its current extractive, fossil-fuel reliance to one that is robust and sustainable and places the health of people, workers, communities, and the planet as its priority. For the last century, workers across the country have brought us the "power" (coal, oil, and gas) to develop into a modern society and it is critical that these communities are part of discussions focused on how we move towards 100% clean energy. On this webinar, speakers from the Labor Network for Sustainability share more information about their recent report, "Workers and Communities in Transition: Report of the Just Transition Listening Project." This report was based on interviews with workers who currently work in the fossil fuel industries around the country. The overwhelming message from these workers makes it clear that we need a just transition plan. Watch the webinar to learn more about how nurses can support a just transition framework as they engage on climate solutions. We also explore the questions: As a nurse in a community that might see an industry and employees disrupted by our transition away from all things fossil fuels, what kinds of health, mental health and behavioral health issues might we expect to see? What would you want to make sure is in place ahead of time in order to keep the workers and community healthy and secure during and after the transition?

The Cost of Inaction: Estimating the Health Costs of Climate Sensitive Events

Global climate change is underway and accelerating, posing serious threats to human health. Recent national and international climate change assessments have drawn attention to the substantial risks that climate change poses to economic stability; these reports have also highlighted the need for better estimates of the economic risks of the climate crisis. Amongst those risks, the physical and mental health-related costs of climate change are amongst the least studied. Our project analyzed publicly available data sets, government databases, and published analyses in the peer‐reviewed literature to estimate the human health‐related costs of a subset of 10 climate‐sensitive case studies that occurred in 11 U.S. states during 2012: wildfires in Colorado and Washington, ozone air pollution in Nevada, extreme heat in Wisconsin, infectious disease outbreaks of tick‐borne Lyme disease in Michigan and mosquito‐borne West Nile virus in Texas, extreme weather in Ohio, impacts of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York, allergenic oak pollen in North Carolina, and harmful algal blooms on the Florida coast. The high health‐related costs of climate‐sensitive events highlight the need to mitigate climate change and adapt to its unavoidable impacts.

UCS Report - Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days

Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days. The research finds that increases in potentially lethal heat driven by climate change will affect every state in the contiguous United States in the decades ahead. The findings are alarming: few places would be unaffected by extreme heat conditions by midcentury and only a few mountainous regions would be heat refuges by the century's end.