This commentary is by Dan Quinlan of Burlington. He leads and advises health professionals working on climate change in several states, including with the Vermont Climate and Health Alliance.
I have spent the last 10 years working with thousands of wonderful health professionals in Vermont and across the country who are speaking out about the immense health threats of climate change. One problem most people understand is the obvious (and predicted) increase in the frequency of severe weather events — events that send people to the hospital here in Vermont and across the nation — people hurt in storms, children suffering severe respiratory effects from wildfire smoke, older people having heart attacks brought on by heat waves. Three of many frightening, sometimes deadly, impacts.
Unfortunately, there is a second category of major health concern here. Public health professionals focus on the phrase “social determinants of health.” These are defined as: “the conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect virtually all health and quality-of life-outcomes.”
The most obvious examples are again the severe weather events that tear up roads and bridges, destroy farmers’ fields and wipe out crops, prevent the shipment and delivery of goods, overrun our water treatment plants, and on and on and on. And there are other arenas of related concern, too numerous to describe here. The full costs imposed on society for all this — including medical costs — are going through the roof.
The nexus of economic loss and damage to the social determinants of health is irrefutably growing. If you don’t believe that idea is true, as one example of many, consider the cost to protect your home. In more and more places in this country, home insurance costs are skyrocketing. Dig in on that topic and you will find that big insurers like State Farm, Allstate and Farmers are no longer offering home insurance in entire states. That trend will spread, including into Vermont. The physicians, nurses, veterinarians, and other health professionals within the Vermont Climate & Health Alliance know that if we do not slow all this down, the cost to Vermonters will be beyond staggering.
Over the years, Vermont has become a leader in enacting smart, high-impact policies and programs around how we use and generate energy. Policies that lower energy costs, especially for those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Policies that keep more of our energy spending in state. Policies that create good paying jobs while protecting the health and well-being of our kids and our grandkids. The new clean energy economy is booming across this country. How about we focus on more of that kind of forward, problem solving, economy building action?
Instead, a bill has been introduced in the Vermont House of Representatives (H.289) that would roll back years of wonderful and hopeful forward motion in Vermont on climate change and clean energy. Instead of blindly backpedaling, the administration should propose legislation that will bring more of those jobs and investment dollars to Vermont.
In the discussion of the bill, Gov. Phil Scott says he will introduce a new plan after the next election, in December 2026. “Later” has been the operative word in some quarters for a very long time. Rolling back now, before we get to “later”, is poor governance.
How can it be that these ideas are not seared into the mind of every legislator and every member of the administration in Vermont? Two common narratives get in the way: (1) “the carbon footprint of Vermont is small,” and (2) “the real problem is other bigger states and countries.”
For starters, those ideas ignore the fact every single product we touch, consume or watch took energy to make and then deliver to Vermont homes and businesses. A tiny fraction of what we consume was made in Vermont. Our consumption of goods drives energy use and carbon pollution all over the United States and beyond. On that score, borders mean nothing. The second issue is this — the demand for electricity is going to go up in Vermont and everywhere else. Where will that power come from?
Six years ago, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg stood before the most powerful people on the planet at the World Economic Forum and said: “I don’t want your hope. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I do. Every day. And I want you to act. I want you to behave like our house is on fire.” If you look at the policy statements of every major professional medical group in the United States (including the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Public Health Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics), you’ll understand why ‘panic’ is a reasonable word here.
Beloved baseball icon Yogi Berra once said: “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Damn right. If we don’t stick to our commitments, our kids will rightfully resent the future we are leaving them. The laws that have been passed are not worth the paper they are printed on if we do not follow through on what we promised to do. Along with Greta, young Vermonters are listening and watching. “Later” is not good enough.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Dan Quinlan: Later is not good enough.