Dr. Jeremy Hess, associate professor and director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington—he’s also an emergency room doctor—said the research also says that, despite the substantial financial losses, “the losses also are personal. They represent pain and suffering of people and struggles that result from disasters.”
Limaye added, “These events represent what we can expect in the future, but the health costs are not part of our national conversation right now. The impacts of these events also will worsen in severity in the future.”
Policy makers need to know that if action is taken now to lessen the events’ impacts, it will actually lower future costs, the panel said. The study included recommendations for improved actions and public policy for the future.
“Carbon pollution must be rapidly reduced to limit the most serious health effects related to climate change,” the report said. “The NRDC strongly supports robust federal, state and local efforts to limit the carbon pollution that is causing dangerous climate change.”
“Only about one-third of U.S. states currently include public health measures in their climate change adaptation plans,” the report added. Infrastructure that is needed to reduce the health costs of disasters include “employing heat early warning systems and health advisories, building public cooling centers, providing better disease surveillance, redesigning communities to withstand floods and storms, and reducing wildfire risks.”
And the researchers suggested that more work like this study is needed to determine health-care costs and track events and outcomes as needed.
“Investments in preparedness and climate adaptation today could help us avoid or reduce tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars in future health costs and unprecedented human suffering,” the study said.