Healthy Planet, Healthy People
By Margot Lester, SORS Volunteer
You may like being outside, but did you know it can actually be good for you? When the weather’s safe and the air quality is good, being in nature delivers all kinds of health benefits. Using functional MRI technology, researchers studied brain activity and discovered that looking at natural objects, landscapes and coastal vistas light up a part of our brains that’s teeming with opioid receptors connected to our dopamine reward system.1 (That’s the part of our brains that kicks in when we’re doing something pleasurable) Enjoying those views (or even art and photos of them) activates makes us less likely to dwell on negative memories, feel stressed and be more likely to think positive thoughts and form emotional ties.
When we’re outside, especially around lots of plants like at the Arboretum or a park, we take in beneficial chemicals that ignite antioxidant production, which helps lower the risk of stress-related conditions, including cancer and heart disease.2 The phytoncide trees generate can lower our production of stress hormones, decrease anxiety and boost our pain thresholds.3 And that’s just from being outside. We get additional upside when we exercise (with our healthcare provider’s OK, of course).
How climate affects our health
Climate change, though, has negative effects on health. I don’t want to bum you out, but:
Extreme heat is hard on everyone, especially for people with one or more chronic illnesses or who are pregnant or elderly. Poor air quality and higher carbon monoxide levels make it hard to breathe and exacerbate asthma, allergies and other respiratory conditions. Whiplash weather in NC makes heavy rains more dangerous and destructive, causing floods, destroying housing and causing power outages. The strain of these impacts, along with isolation and concern over our changing climate, influences our mental and emotional health, too.All these conditions make it harder to access routine care, stay well at home or get emergency care. That’s because extreme conditions caused by climate change can:
Cause power outages that make it hard to stay cool or warm, run critical at-home medical devices or keep medication refrigerated. Research shows that when the power goes out, the risk of heart attacks, burns, gastrointestinal illnesses and carbon monoxide poisoning increases, too.4 Reduce access to food and water because local stores are closed or have no more inventory or because water treatment facilities are down due to power outages, high water, wildfires or related damage. Prevent us from getting medical care, whether it’s routine appointments or emergency services. Sometimes, damaged roads and bridges make it impossible for us to keep regular medical appointments and scheduled procedures or pick up medications. These conditions can also keep emergency medical providers from reaching us. We might also be unable to get care because the response system is at capacity, medical facilities are closed, or conditions are too dangerous to respond. Our volunteer EMTs and Technical Rescue Team and their colleagues in other emergency response agencies do the best we can to reach every person in need, but sometimes it just isn’t possible.We can’t prevent all these situations, but preparation can make them less likely or harmful. Here are some things you can do:
Pay attention to the local weather reports on WCHL. Sign up for emergency alerts from the county so you know what’s coming ahead of time. Heed evacuation orders if you are able. Talk to your pharmacist about how to handle refrigerated medications when the power goes out. Store and keep charged back-up batteries for at-home medical equipment or purchase and learn to properly use a generator. Ask your healthcare provider to prescribe additional medications ahead of a forecast storm. Keep your first aid kit updated. Learn CPR, basic first aid and Stop the Bleed techniques so you can help yourself and your family members until the pros arrive. (Check out one of our free classes!)Let’s take a closer look at how climate change issues impact our health and well-being.
Extreme heat can hurt you
Climate change creates more days of dangerous heat and humidity and longer periods of extreme heat. The U.S. is getting hotter every year (2024 was the hottest year recorded in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 130-year measurement history5) and heatwave season is lasting 46 days longer than it did in the ’60s.6 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found that extreme heat events can trigger heat-related illnesses and cause severe dehydration. And because higher temperatures contribute to the amount of air pollution, extremely hot weather can make breathing difficult and exacerbate existing respiratory diseases.7 While this atmospheric condition can be harmful to anyone, it’s especially hard on little kids, older folks and people with chronic illnesses, who don’t have access to air conditioning or who work outside.
Heat Wave Characteristics in the United States by Decade, 1961–2023. Source: NOAA
Air quality affects respiratory conditions
Air quality is important to everyone, and when it declines, our health does, too. Climate change lowers air quality8 because it increases smog, thanks to increased temps and higher levels of volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Exposure to these ambient pollutants, which makes asthma worse, is also associated with adverse cardiovascular effects. Our changing climate is also extending and intensifying pollen and allergy season, which harms our respiratory systems even if we don’t have allergies or asthma. Poor air quality can lead to more lung infections, asthma and allergy attacks, bronchitis, chest pains, and even death.
Flooding and drought impact wellbeing
As we covered in a previous column, climate change increases the frequency and severity of storms, floods and droughts. Here in North Carolina, we’re experiencing more episodes of severe drought followed immediately by heavy rains and flooding, according to the North Carolina State Climate Office.9 This is called weather whiplash. Floodwater is dangerous, spreading chemicals, bacteria, viruses and parasites into waterways, all of which can make us sick. It’s also full of debris and other things that can cause injuries. Floods also impact air quality thanks to mold occurring in flooded spaces like our homes, schools and other buildings. These spores irritate our lungs, can trigger allergic reactions and allergies, and can be especially serious for people with weakened immune systems.10
This is a flash flood in Carrboro caused by an intense rainstorm. Photo: Margot Lester
Climate change influences mental health
Whether we experience a climate event directly or not, climate change impacts our emotional well-being and mental health. Many of us are worried over climate change: 64% of Americans in a Yale study reported being at least somewhat worried about global warming.11 Worry is OK unless it prevents us from enjoying life. That’s what clinicians call climate anxiety – when distress over climate change and its impacts interferes with our social relationships, work or school.12 Those of us who live through the worst climate-related events can experience severe stress, grief, depression, hopelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder, isolation and increased thoughts of suicide.
How SORS is reducing our climate impact
We’re not sharing this information to freak you out or make you feel worse. The better we understand the connection between climate change on our health, the more action we can take to lessen the impacts. That includes getting outside when it’s safe, of course, and doing small but meaningful things to reduce our own impact.
Climate change is a positive feedback loop. All of the things that contribute to increased temperatures and climate change require us to make conscious decisions. From reducing our plastic usage, to changing habits that reduce particulate matter spread into the atmosphere, to more efficient energy sources, our individual conscious decisions contribute to collective action that gets results.
One of our biggest impacts on the environment is our fleet of response and support vehicles. EPA data show that vehicles are the largest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for about 28% of total U.S. emissions.13 To improve community air quality, we’re making a major push to reduce our CO2 emissions and diesel exhaust particulate matter contributions to the environment as much as possible. We’re transitioning to more fuel-efficient vehicles that utilize gas wherever possible and continuing to utilize more efficient ambulance styles. We’re also continuing to limit vehicle idling to only when we are on the scene of an active emergency.
One of our newer rigs in front of our station on Robeson Street in Carrboro. Photo: Gabi Battaglini
We can also green our supply and equipment inventory. Our leadership monitors supply and equipment consumption, favoring items that are multi-purpose or serve multiple roles. And when we can reduce our waste in the procurement process, we try to do so. We even have reusable K-cups in the squad breakroom to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics.
At SORS, we take climate change seriously. Extreme weather means more emergencies for our EMTs and Technical Rescue Team to respond to. And it’s not just your health we’re concerned about. We also need to look after the well-being of our volunteers so we’re ready and able to respond when you need us. That’s why it’s our shared responsibility to our community to have as little impact as possible. Whether reducing vehicle idling time, choosing alternate products that reduce waste, finding more fuel-efficient response vehicles, or other efforts, every decision has long-term implications.
Reducing further harm to our climate and our health starts with small decisions that, over time, can build into larger mindset changes that produce impact at the individual, organizational and community level. You don’t have to have the solution to the problem, you just have to be a part of it.
Footnotes and References
Margot Lester, former SORS board member and current strategic communications and advocacy volunteer, holds a certificate in climate change communications from NASA’s Earth to Sky program.
The South Orange Dispatch is a monthly column on Chapelboro by the South Orange Rescue Squad: an all volunteer, 501c3 non-profit providing EMS and technical rescue services in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area of Orange County since 1971.
The South Orange Dispatch: Healthy Planet, Healthy People Chapelboro.com.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The South Orange Dispatch: Healthy Planet, Healthy People )
Also on site :
- Hamas says it is ready to release all remaining hostages for an end to Gaza war
- NYT ‘Connections’ Hints and Answers Today, Friday, April 18
- US lawmakers’ bipartisan Taiwan visit signals support despite harsh words and tariffs from Trump