"Many of the solutions to climate change, to preventing climate change, are within reach." -- Sir Andy Haines, MD, MBBS, FRCGP, FFPHM, FRCP, of the London School of Hygiene, at the Climate & Health Meeting
APHA declared 2017 as the Year of Climate Change and Health. The Feb. 16 Climate & Health Meeting in Atlanta underscored the challenges and potential solutions facing everyone concerned about how climate change impacts health.
Read more about the meeting, a collaboration between former Vice President Al Gore, APHA, the Climate Reality Project, Harvard Global Health Institute, the University of Washington Center for Health and the Global Environment and Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, MPH, the former director of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with support from the Turner Foundation and other organizations:
You can also watch a video replay of the meeting. At the 5:05:40 mark, former President Jimmy Carter welcomes attendees to the Carter Center and reminds us, "there's no doubt that when the ravages of global warming become more obvious to everyone...the first horrible impacts on people's lives will be in the poorest villages and the poorest nations on earth." And read some heartwarming fan mail to APHA for helping make the meeting happen.
Meeting Agenda
| 9-9:30 a.m. |
Welcome Remarks
• Former Vice President Al Gore, Founder and Chairman, The Climate Reality Project
• Georges Benjamin, APHA
• Ashish Jha, Harvard Global Health Institute
|
| 9:30-10 a.m. |
Keynote Presentation
Vice President Al Gore, Founder and Chairman, The Climate Reality Project |
10-10:15 a.m. |
Break
|
| 10:15-11:30 a.m. |
Panel: Connecting Climate Change and Public Health: State of the Science
• Moderator — Jonathan Patz, University of Wisconsin
• Heat — Kim Knowlton, Natural Resources Defense Council and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
• Extreme Weather Events and Disasters — Mark Keim, DisasterDoc
• The Food Supply — Sam Myers, Harvard University
• Infectious Diseases — Glenn Morris, University of Florida
• Air Quality and Allergens — Patrick Kinney, Boston University
• Mental Health — Lise Van Susteren, Advisory Board member, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health |
| 11:30 a.m.-12:05 p.m. |
Special keynote: Co-benefits: The good news story of climate change and health
• Introduction by: Patrick Breysse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Professor Sir Andy Haines, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
|
12:05–12:15 p.m.
|
Special Keynote: Laura Turner Seydel
Board Member, the Turner Foundation; Board Chair, Mothers and Others for Clean Air |
12:15–12:25 p.m.
|
Special Keynote: Stephanie Stuckey
Chief Resilience Officer, City of Atlanta
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| 12:50-1:35 p.m. |
Lunchtime Panel: Protecting Public Health From Climate-Related Threats: Lessons from Across the Globe
• Moderator — Kristie Ebi, University of Washington
• Rainer Sauerborn, Heidelberg Institute of Public Health
• Diarmid Campell-Lendrum, World Health Organization
• Jan Semenza, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
|
2:15-3:30 p.m.
|
Panel: Protecting Public Health from Climate-Related Threats: From Science to Practice in the United States
• Moderator — Howard Frumkin, University of Washington
• Climate Change Adaptation: From Models to Action — George Luber, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Vulnerable Populations — Catherine Flowers, Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise
• Action at the State and Local Level — The Role of Public Health Agencies: Clifford Mitchell, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• The Role of the Health Care Sector — Gary Cohen, Health Care Without Harm
• BY VIDEO: Tracking and Measuring Progress — Nick Watts, Lancet Countdown and UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
|
| 3:45-4:45 p.m. |
Panel: Communicating the Climate-Health Connection
• Moderator — Matt James, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• Ed Maibach, George Mason University
• Susan Pacheco, University of Texas Health Science Center
• Jerry Taylor, Niskanen Center |
| 4:45-5 p.m. |
Closing remarks by Vice President Gore |