Climate Postcards: Heat
Climate Postcards:
Climate Change Makes Me Sick!
Heat
Spread the knowledge! Please feel free to share, re-post and print our e-cards. Click the images for larger, printable versions.
Below, you will find detailed information, resources, and opportunities to take climate-protective action.
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Climate change increases heat, but how does that harm my health?
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Certain populations are particularly vulnerable: |
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“Temperature extremes most directly affect health by compromising the body’s ability to regulate its internal temperature. Loss of internal temperature control can result in a cascade of illnesses…also worsen chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cerebrovascular disease, and diabetes-related conditions. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures is associated with increased hospital admissions for cardiovascular, kidney, and respiratory disorders.” |
The overarching issue: How can I help prevent climate change?
- Spread the knowledge by sharing our postcards!
- Use our postcards to query your federal, state or local government representatives: What are they doing to protect your community from the dangers to health posed by climate change?
- Climate change is accelerated by burning fossil fuels. In order to slow climate change and protect air quality, we must replace fossil fuels with renewable energy and energy efficiency.
- Join PSR’s Activist List.
Resources
- Environmental Protection Agency (2008, October) What are Urban Heat Islands? Reducing Urban Heat Islands: Compendium of Strategies (Chapter 1)
- U.S. Global Change Research Program (2016, April 4.) The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment
This government study documents “what we know about the impacts of climate change on public health, and the confidence with which we know it.” It examines a broad range of health impacts as they affect the health of the American people, not just in the future but right now. - PSR: Climate Change and Health: The Effects of Heat (Fact Sheet)
- PSR: Heat’s Deadly Effects (Fact Sheet)
![]() This figure shows the relationship between high temperatures and deaths observed during the 1995 Chicago heat wave. The large spike in deaths in mid-July of 1995 (red line) is much higher than the average number of deaths during that time of year (orange line), as well as the death rate before and after the heat wave. This increase in the rate of deaths occurred during and after the heat wave, as shown here by temperatures exceeding the 100 degree F during the day (green line). Humidity and high nighttime temperatures were also key contributing factors to this increase in deaths (Karl, T. R., and R. W. Knight, 1997). The number of excess deaths has been estimated to be about 700 based on statistical methods, but only 465 deaths in Cook County were classified as “heat related” on death certificates during this same period, demonstrating the tendency of direct attribution to undercount total heat-related deaths(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1995). (Figure source: EPA, 2012) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1995: Heat-related mortality–Chicago, July 1995. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 44, 577-579 |