Cometh the Climate Change Cavalry?

Last Thursday, the White House released a new study on the effects of human-induced climate change on the United States.  The New York Times reports that the study concludes, as you might expect, that spread of warmth-loving pests and loss of low-lying lands to rising seas are potential effects of the climate change.

 

The study also comes to some new conclusions:  “An increased frequency and severity of heat waves is expected, leading to more illness and death, particularly among the young, elderly, frail and poor.”  Additionally, the report included new projections of how the poor, elderly and communities with lagging public-health and public-works systems will face disproportionate health risks from warming.

 

To us at Fifty Forward this is a particularly timely report.  The aging of the Baby Boomers and all the potential attendant impacts to our society are beginning to seriously capture the attention of policy makers.  And the issues of health care are becoming increasingly important in our national debate. 

 

Both of these issues take on new significance in light of this report, which raises some hopeful questions.

 

Are regulations on carbon emissions far behind?

 

Will the EPA finally grant carbon emissions the status of a threat to human health, as the Supreme Court says it should?