ID Implications of Climate Change

In response to congressional hearings on climate change held by the House Natural Resources Committee and the Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, IDSA submitted two letters.

IDSA used this opportunity to educate these committees about the significant impacts climate change could have on many waterborne, vector borne, and zoonotic diseases, as well as infectious diseases that occur due to population displacement that may be caused by more frequent and severe natural disasters. IDSA also provided recommendations for ways to both slow climate change and mitigate the infectious diseases consequences including:

• Advance policies to decrease carbon emissions, critical to slowing global warming.
• Increase investment in public health infrastructure and workforce to improve monitoring for and response to adverse health impacts of climate change, such as enhanced vector surveillance and human disease tracking for vector-borne diseases.
• Fund long-term studies to assess the relationships between weather variables and infectious diseases determinants.
• Include the infectious disease risks associated with natural disasters, population displacement, and climate change in comprehensive disaster response activities.

IDSA also recently signed onto an amicus brief written by students and faculty from Harvard Law School for public health practitioners and groups in support of Juliana v. United States, a lawsuit brought by Our Children’s Trust, aimed at forcing the government to do more to cut carbon emissions.