Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Op-Ed: March Sunday because healthy communities need climate action

  • Other
  • by Kathy Murphy and Anne Hulick
  • September 19, 2014
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

As nurses, we care for our communities. We are there for the boy with the broken arm, the lady from the bank with heart problems, or the retiree with the flu. We are there when our friends and neighbors are hurting, and we do our best to get them better. We are there to help after disaster strikes, but we also work to protect our communities from harm. As nurses know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Many of these preventable threats are widely known—most people know that it’s good for your health to eat vegetables, drink responsibly, and avoid cigarettes. The threat that we’re worried about, though, can seem much more out of our hands.

Op-ed submit bugThis threat, acknowledged as a critical public health issue by the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, and the American Nurses Association, is our changing climate.

As companies and businesses around the world continue pumping greenhouse gases into the air, nurses and the communities they love and serve are left to clean up messes made worse by warming.

Communities throughout Connecticut have been devastated by extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Winter Storm Nemo in 2013, or the Halloween nor’easter of 2011. Nurses see the aftermath—death, damage to homes and towns, uprooted families—and fear that these extreme storms are already the new norm.

As climate change continues, extreme rain, winds, flooding, and storms will become more frequent and intense. We want to be there to save our communities from disasters.

It’s not just the extreme storms that we’re worried about. Climate change will cause Connecticut to heat up.

According to a report by Climate Central, summers in Hartford in 2100 will feel like today’s summers in Orlando, with an expected average increase of 10˚F. So while you may be able to sweat out the summer without air conditioning, that won’t be an option for much longer.

Hotter temperatures and higher humidity cause heatstroke and heat exhaustion, and can make cardiovascular disease or kidney problems even worse. A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that 150,000 Americans could die from excessive heat from climate change by the end of the century. We want to be there to save our communities from this heat.

Hotter weather also causes air quality to get worse, triggering asthma and other lung problems. With over one in ten children afflicted, Connecticut has higher-than-average asthma rates. Children in hot, smog-filled cities and low-income households are more likely to have this respiratory disease, which is a disparity that will keep increasing as the climate changes. We want to be there to save our communities from asthma.

Climate change is a big problem with big effects. We try to do our part where we can by being conscientious about our own carbon footprint, but it can be harder to figure out what to do about factories, power plants, and other carbon sources around the world.

That’s why, on Sept. 21, nurses from around the country are coming to New York to join the People’s Climate March. We will be there to save our communities from global warming.

As nurses, we are everywhere. One out of every one hundred Americans is a nurse. We’re in homes, churches, hospitals, and schools. We’ve fought against other environmental poisons like lead and toxic chemicals because we know that’s just common-sense good nursing. Now, it’s time for us to join the fight against greenhouse gases and do what we do best: help.

Climate change does the most damage to people who are the most vulnerable, people who we’ve dedicated our lives to healing and keeping safe. On Sept. 21, we invite you to join with nurses and thousands of other marchers. Let’s protect and care for the people—and the planet—we love. That’s the spirit of nursing.

Kathy Murphy and Anne Hulick, both Connecticut nurses, are members of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathy Murphy and Anne Hulick

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Best of 2019: Key Dems press bill to increase minority recruitment at Coast Guard Academy
by Ana Radelat

The bill is a response to allegations of discrimination and a racially hostile environment at the school.

Navy cuts number of EB Virginia-class subs in new contract
by Ana Radelat

Electric Boat wanted the Navy to include 10 subs, and possibly 11, in the so-called "Block 5" contract. But the Navy agreed to only nine.

Electric Boat facing mounting challenges as sub work ramps up
by Ana Radelat

There continue to be concerns about EB’s ability to build the new Columbia-class submarine alongside its smaller Virginia-class attack subs.

Talk of gun violence, little else
by Paul Stern

In national politics last week there was talk of little else than gun violence, white nationalism and gun control following the fatal shootings of 31 people in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas. There was little more than talk, too.

Politics and the ‘dark psychic force of collectivized hatred’
by Paul Stern

President Donald Trump insists he is not a racist, but 51 percent of Americans believe he is, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week. Certainly his “send her back” comments about Somalia-born U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and last week’s jabs at U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore did nothing to dispel that […]

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Biden is right to think big on infrastructure
by Jim Cameron

Hurrah! It was finally “infrastructure week” in Washington. In his first 100 days as President, Joe Biden has delivered a plan that his predecessor just kept teasing us with for four years:  a complete rehabilitation and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure.

Opinion My life and every other Black life matters
by Eugene Bertrand

"My life and every other black life matters." This is every black person's motto in the United States of America. In the past few months, we've seen an increase in deaths among the Black community.

Opinion Send us the children
by Kellin Atherton

Send us the children, President Biden. Send us the children, Governor Lamont. But not just the children. Move heaven and earth to find their families. Find mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. Children are coming here alone. Find someone to ease their loneliness and bring them too.

Opinion Lobbyist uses seniors and people with disabilities to protect drug company profits
by Ellen M. Andrews

Reading William Smith’s opinion (Connecticut must protect vulnerable populations from biased and discriminatory healthcare practices, April 13, 2021), I was worried that my state had passed draconian laws that were harming the health of seniors and people with disabilities. Thankfully, that isn’t the case. Our anti-discrimination laws are still in place and functioning.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO