Connecting the Dots Between Climate Change & Our Health

Connecting the Dots Between Climate Change & Our Health

This presentation will describe some of the ways that climate change is already impacting and harming people’s health. These climate-health impacts also impose a cost burden that totals in the billions, yet health is almost never included among the costs of climate change that society is expected to bear.  People can take positive steps to protect their health from climate change’s harmful effect, avoiding the related costs and preserving community well-being. Besides individual-level protection, being informed and active in demanding policies that create healthier, more equitable, secure communities is essential. 

Learning Objectives: 

Following this session, participants will be able to:

1. Describe three ways that climate change is already affecting the environment in ways that can harm human health.

2. Name three types of health-related costs from climate-sensitive extreme weather and other climate change-fueled events.

3. List two strategies that can help individuals, families, or communities limit the health harms and related costs they experience under a changing climate.

Speaker 

Kim Knowlton, DrPH, is assistant clinical professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and a member of Third Act, a national organization mobilizing people over 60 to safeguard the climate and uplift democracy. She was senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in New York from 2007-2024, specializing in the human health impacts of climate change. She served as co-convening lead author for the human health chapter of the U.S. Third National Climate Assessment; as a member of the 2nd and 4th New York City Panels on Climate Change; and participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 Fourth and 2013 Fifth Assessment Reports. Her work at NRDC with community partners in India helped to develop and launch South Asia’s first heat early warning system and action plan. She holds a doctorate in Public Health from Columbia University, a master’s in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences from CUNY/Hunter College, and a BA in Geological Sciences from Cornell University.