Under the Weather: The Climate Crisis is a Health Crisis

Climate One

News, Social Sciences, News Commentary, Science, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the planet warms, the story of climate change is increasingly becoming a story about human health. Rising temperatures, wildfire smoke, flooding, and shifting disease patterns are no longer distant threats; they are everyday realities. The climate crisis is reshaping health care systems, exposing inequalities, and forcing doctors and policymakers to rethink some of their practices. Medical schools are beginning to adopt climate as part of their curricula, yet such education is widely variable across the country. So what policy and system changes might help address both the climate and health crises at the same time? Episode Guests: Jeni Miller, Executive Director, Global Climate and Health Alliance Cecilia Sorensen, Director, Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, Columbia University Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, President and CEO, PAI For show notes, transcript, and related links, visit climateone.org/podcasts Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 03:30 – Cecilia Sorensen on consulting for a Grey’s Anatomy episode on heat 07:00 – Climate impact she’s seen in the ER 10:00 – Medical education is variable across the country, including climate awareness 16:00 – Importance of public health and the role of preventive medicine 21:00 – Jeni Miller on interconnections between climate and human health 29:30 – Climate crisis puts pressure on global health systems 34:30 – Ways health care systems can better prepare for climate impacts 44:30 – Connection between climate change and reproductive/sexual health 51:30 – Climate change exacerbates existing inequalities for women and girls around the world 56:00 – Navigating efforts by the Trump administration to increase fertility and birth rate while cutting social services 58:30 – Climate One More Thing ***** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at patreon.com/ClimateOne. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	AI is incredible. They can teach you how to fry an egg and even write a poem, pirate style.
0:07.0	But it knows nothing about your work. Slackbot is different. It doesn't just know the facts.
0:14.0	It knows your schedule. It can turn a brainstorm into a brief and it doesn't need to be taught.
0:20.0	Because Slackbot isn't just another AI.
0:23.3	It's AI that knows your work as well as you do. Visit Slack.com forward slash meet Slackbot to learn more.
0:30.3	Okay, Ariana, I had to just change insurance and it is the bane of my existence.
0:36.0	Health insurance? Yeah, health insurance.
0:38.3	Like, the most complicated kind.
0:40.2	I don't know if there's anything more complicated than health insurance.
0:43.6	Why do you have to change?
0:45.2	I just like, new job, new year, new me, new ailments.
0:51.5	I just turned 38 for some people. That's not old. It's like this liminal space between
0:56.6	like your 10,000 mile body warranty is just about to expire bumper to bumper. I got to get
1:04.1	checked out, bro. Anyway, it's a big headache. And it made me really thankful this past week,
1:10.7	simultaneously that I have insurance,
1:12.5	but also made me so aware of an equity that we face in the health care system. And surprisingly,
1:19.9	especially when it comes to climate change. Well, you're not alone. There are a lot of people
1:24.7	really struggling right now because the premiums for people who get
1:28.7	their health care through the federal marketplace have just gone up an average of 20%.
1:33.7	That's because Congress stopped funding the tax credits that had made Affordable Care Act
1:38.6	insurance affordable. Yeah. Last summer, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that letting these subsidies expire would increase the number of uninsured by 4.2 million people over the next decade.
1:51.1	That's a lot of people.
	...

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