By Brendan Smith and Jeremy Brecher

Not worried about climate change? How about the health of you and your family?

For decades the public health community has been trying to get us to understand that climate change affects the fundamental requirements for health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter. Their research reveals this is not some distant threat — it’s here and now and already responsible fore more than 150,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses every year.

And with climate-linked disease tolls expected to double by as soon as 2030, the crisis is only going to get worse.  Our doctors are sounding the alarm that climate change poses the biggest threat to human health in the 21st century, and before it’s too late, we need to heed their warnings.

Here are six reasons why the public health community is so worried:

Fatal Diseases are Becoming More Virulent and are Spreading: Many of the most deadly diseases on earth — malaria, dengue and yellow fever, encephalitis and cholera — are highly climate sensitive, and as a result, are spreading to new parts of the globe — including the U.S. Dengue fever, for example, has rarely been seen in the U.S. but is now appearing in Florida. An additional two billion people will likely be exposed to this deadly virus over the next 60 years. (more…)

by Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith

At the start of 2011, as the energy corporations, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Tea Party right launched their assault on environmental protection and the EPA, it looked like public opinion and organized labor might just be swept along. Instead, much of the public and the labor movement have rallied in support of EPA and environmental regulation. The result has been a standoff on legislation to decimate EPA authority to protect the environment. But whether it will be possible to prevent the backdoor effort to gut the EPA by cutting its budget hangs in the balance.

In a March 14 article titled “EPA Tangles With New Critic: Labor,” the Wall Street Journal reported that “several unions” are demanding that the EPA “soften new regulations” that “could put thousands of jobs in jeopardy.” It noted an analysis by the United Mine Workers saying that proposed EPA regulations could put 250,000 jobs at risk in the utility, mining and railroad sectors. It cited a letter from a coalition including Boilermakers, Mine Workers, and Utility Workers to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson saying that a a tightening of standards on ground-level ozone would “have a significant impact on our states’ workers.” (more…)

by Brendan Smith and Jeremy Brecher

To talk of climate change or not to talk of climate change — that is the question.

For the last several years many of the biggest players in the climate movement have argued that to save the planet we need to purge the words “global warming” and “climate change” from our talking points and educational materials.  Poll-oriented groups like the Breakthrough Institute and the Environmental Defense Fund argue that public opinion surveys prove Americans care most about jobs and lack the capacity to act on some distant threat.

They maintain that instead of being prophets of doom, climate protection advocates should gather around a “good news” agenda that limits our messaging to green jobs, national pride, and reducing our dependence on foreign oil. “Forget about climate change” Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, explained to a gathering of environmentalists last year. Just ask people “Do you love America?” (more…)

President Barack Obama recently established a Presidential Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He told the first meeting, “The biggest challenge we’re seeing right now is that unemployment is way too high.” He asked them to come up with “some concrete deliverables” to lower the 9% unemployment rate. Here is a concrete proposal to create jobs protecting America’s environment — and making sure other workers are not hurt in the process.

A recent study released by Ceres and the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts examines the jobs effects of some of new EPA regulations. The study found that between 2010 and 2015, investment to meet the new regulations will produce the equivalent of 290,000 year-round jobs for the entire five-year period. And these are going to be the good, green jobs we’ve all been waiting for, ranging from engineers and project managers to electricians and iron workers. (more…)