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Generally, climate change is referred to as the long-term shifts in temperatures and weather conditions. 

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Ex. rising sea levels or accelerating melting of ice

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The science of protecting and improving the health of people and communities. 

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Ex. health before, during, and after the Covid-19 pandemic 

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Since the 1800s, human activities like burning fossil fuels(coal, oil, and gas) have been the main catalyst of climate change. Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions, preventing Earth from cooling itself. As a result, the temperature rises due to the trapped sun's heat in the atmosphere.  

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Source(s): gasoline for cars, heating a building, cutting/clearing land, and agricultural practices 

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(2011-2020) recorded the warmest temperature in the last four decades. 

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The average temperature of Earth's surface shows record of being 1.1 degree celsius warmer compared to before the 1800s, or the industrial revolution. 

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Flooding, melting ice, storms, and diminishing biodiversity 

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Droughts, water scarcity, fires, rising sea levels 

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What actions can be taken to prevent/diminish the effects and spread of climate change? What happens if we keep disregarding the importance of climate change? Should we pay the bill now, or pay with interest in the future? 

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How climate change affects people's health 

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2). Creating new and unanticipated health problems 

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1). Increasing the frequency or seriousness of existing health problems 

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Climate change is a major catalyst of respiratory, heart, and pest-related diseases

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Adaptive Capacity --> People are able to adapt depending on their income, age, situation of living, and access to health care products

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Vulnerability/Susceptibility to climate change depends on 3 factors:  

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Sensitivity --> People are more sensitive to climate change effects if they are impacted due to age or health conditions(Ex. people with asthma are more sensitive to air pollutants and wildfire smoke than people who do not have asthma) 

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Exposure --> The more time people are exposed to time outside, the more exposed they are to the extreme increase in heat. 

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As I am claiming that climate change is the catalyst for the problems in the world, one of the most important effects it has on the world is on us, especially public health. Therefore we must understand how public health is a direct effect of climate change and diseases caused by such a catalyst can be stopped if we address the problem as a global dilemma. 

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--> Increase in injuries and fatalities due to extreme weather: natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and more are amplified through climate change. As a result, it threatens health through possible drowning, trauma, burns, smoke inhalation, etc. 

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--> Rise and increase in infectious diseases: the warming temperatures from climate change allow the disease-carrying mosquitos and ticks to thrive in such regions. 

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--> Diminishing air quality: climate change worsens air quality by increasing ground-level ozone, pollen, and wildfire smoke. Air pollution tends to navigate towards areas that are sources of pollution. The WHO(World Health Organization) has found that air pollution and house pollution combined are associated with 6.7 million premature deaths per year. 

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--> Heat-related illnesses: intense heat waves can lead to illnesses like heat strokes, exhaustion, cramps, and rashes. People who are susceptible to heat-related illnesses are infants. teenagers, older adults, outdoor workers, and people with severe medical conditions. ***ANYONE CAN BE HARMED IF THE ARE EXPOSED OVER THE LIMIT OF THE TEMPERATURE REGULATION***

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--> Food and water insecurities: affects crop yields, animal populations, and access to safe drinking water. Therefore, this leads to malnutrition and food-water-borne infections.

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--> Older, pregnant, and infant people are more susceptible to climate change risks. 

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--> Rural and indigenous communities are affected due to their dependence on natural resources and ecosystems for survival and culture; these are effected by climate change, and hence their health is affected. 

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--> Communities of color are excessively exposed to toxic air from human actions like fossil fuels. 

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--> Low-income communities face more exposure to the effects of climate change(ex. heat, flooding, and pollution)

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--> Outdoor workers and the homeless populations have greater exposure to heat, air pollution, vectors, and extreme weathers that directly endangers health.  

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If climate change affects public health, what effects does it have on the mental health of civilians?? 

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What can companies adopt to decrease the risks of public health due to climate change? 

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7). Sustainable Suppliers: companies should invest in suppliers that demonstrate a good environmental practices such as GRI or B Corp. 

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3). Invest in Renewable Energy: suppliers like ekWateur or Enercoop have been found to only use 100% renewable energy. 

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8 actions companies can adopt to fight climate change: 

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4). Reduce Waste and Fight Obsolescence: reducing the amount of industrial waste of large companies reduces the risks of climate change. Avoiding such disposable cups, stirrers, and capsules of coffee machines is a small way to do so. 

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2). Reducing Energy Consumption: it is as simple as turning of the lights in the office in the evening, lowering the heating and air-conditioning. 

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1). Analyze Greenhouse Gas Emissions: analyzing which companies' activities have the highest pollutants can then proceed to consider solutions to reduce such emissions. 

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5). Optimize Employees' Transportation: encourage employees to take public transportation and carpool reduces the CO2 emissions and therefore their impact on climate change. 

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6). Greener Infrastructures and Equipment: examples of eco-friendly equipment would be all-electric cars. 

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8). Raise Awareness Among Employees, Clients, and Others: raising awareness will ignite the practices to improve such issues that are exhumed by organized contests, hackathons, and campaigns to bring such awareness towards climate change. 

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- Hitachi Technology: High Voltage Direct Current(HVDC) Light transmission technology 

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***SPECIFIC EXAMPLE: The Project in New York 

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- The project is expected to create 1,400 jobs from the construction phase and bring in approx. $50 billion in economic benefits. 

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- The State of New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act has set the year 2030 to be the target for when the state becomes 70% powered by renewable energy. 

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- Creating a partnership between public-private corporations in the energy sector, using technology from Hitachi to hopefully bring sustainable energy from distant places into high-demanded populated areas like New York. 

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6). Cognitive impairment, dementia --> increase in temperatures is associated with reduced cognitive performance, memory issues, and poor-decision making. Such exposure can cause lasting neurological changes that can impair cognition, hence, air pollution can harm the brain therefore causing an increase in dementia risks. 

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2). Increased stress, aggression, and violence --> heat and air pollution can increase aggression and interpersonal violence, increasing the possible rates of crime and suicide. 

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Climate change is referred to as doomism → its effects are leading to a mental health epidemic.

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3). Hopelessness, helplessness, and nihilism --> younger generations express significant pessimism and can develop feelings of despairity, depression, inaction, and detachment. 

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1). Eco-anxiety and grief --> witnessing ecological destruction and loss of loved ones can cause clinically severe anxiety, PTSD, and other disorders. 

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4). Trauma and PTSD --> traumatic events from weather disasters and oppressive environmental conditions, followed by the loss of loved ones, property, community, identity, and security through such climate events. 

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5). Loss of place, identity, and culture --> threats to indigenous and local cultures and communities 

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--> Eating more vegetables can decrease your sensitivity toward environmental impacts even if you are exposed. If more people eat vegetables, producers will produce more plant-based foods, which generally result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and require less energy. 

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--> Driving a car increases greenhouse gases like CO2 emissions, therefore, we should walk, bike, take public transport, or carpool whenever we can. 

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--> Decrease the amount of energy by lowering heating and cooling appliances, switching to LED lights and using energy-efficient products. 

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--> Advocatin for a different climate adaptation and systems that protect public health while reducing the effects of climate change. 

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--> Prepare targetted populations that are at high risks of the effects. 

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Recommended public health actions to address climate change: 

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--> Educate and bring awareness on the climate change risks. 

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--> Improving access to medical care, support groups to improve mental health, and public health resources. 

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--> Conduct assessment and monitor those that are affected by climate change. 

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--> Reduce greenhouse gases and emissions from healthcare sectors. 

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--> ***DECLARING CLIMATE CHANGE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE/EMERGENCY***

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Industrialized countries can commit to providing $100 billion a year to developing countries in which they can adopt and move towards greener economies. 

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We should pay the bill rather than push the issue further into the future, in which we as a nation will end up paying the consequences with interest. 

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WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN CLIMATE CHANGE? 

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3). Exposure --> One of the main reasons that our public health risks increase from climate change is the inevitable exposure to such environments, therefore, we must take action to prevent such environments in our lives. For example, people decrease their exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic by quarantining themselves within their houses and getting vaccinations. 

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4). Income --> The reason for exposure to such climate change effects happens because of income, the majority being low-income communities. If you are unable to afford such places of confinement that prevent yourself and your loved ones from public health risks, you are more likely to get such health risks, affecting your well-being. 

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2). Public health  --> As I am claiming that climate change is the catalyst for the problems in the world, one of the most important effects it has on the world is on us, especially public health. The key factors that increase our public health susceptibility are Exposure, Sensitivity, and Adaptive Capacity. Therefore we must understand how public health is a direct effect of climate change and diseases caused by such a catalyst can be stopped if we address the problem as a global dilemma. 

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1). Climate Change --> Climate change is the most important out of all of the key terms, being that my question is about how climate change is affecting public health, acting as a catalyst for the multitude of problems that are occurring in our world right now. 

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5). Mental Health Epidemic --> As your physical health deteriorates with the effects of climate change, climate change is shown to have a direct relationship with related physiological effects, some being: eco-anxiety, grief increased stress, aggression, violence, hopelessness, helplessness, and nihilism, trauma and PTSD, loss of place, identity and culture cognitive impairment and dementia. 

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

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how climate affects community health - full video

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Why is climate change a public health issue? Episode 4 of "That's Public Health"

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By Roger Rosenqvist, Vice President of HVDC Business Development, Hitachi Energy; and
Etienne Veilleux, HVDC Business Development, Hitachi Energy, Canada.

Public-private collaboration is critical in addressing the climate crisis. On the public side, laws, regulations and incentives go a long way toward establishing and supporting sustainability targets. But the responsibility for achieving those targets often falls to private companies. Although new tools and technologies are emerging, many with a game-changing capacity to reduce or even eliminate carbon emissions, the problem of electricity transmission has been a major obstacle to expansion of renewable resources. Perhaps that is about to change.

An ambitious project in New York is setting a high bar for public-private partnership in the energy sector, using unique technology from Hitachi to solve the problem of bringing sustainable energy generated hundreds of miles away into a high-demand population center.

Solving the transmission challenge to power New York City

The state of New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act has set a target for the state to be powered by 70% renewable energy by 2030. ¹ Historically, the state has been reliant on traditional, thermal energy sources such as gas and oil, which can easily adjust their power output in response to changes in electricity demand. But most renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, are not able to respond as quickly to changes in demand and power output from such sources vary intermittently based on climatic conditions. Providing renewable energy on demand requires a means of storing this energy for later use or sharing it between different regions - both of which require reliable means of transmission, sometimes across hundreds of miles.

The challenge for New York was finding suitable renewable power that's well-positioned for the transfer of renewable energy to and from the state. Because Quebec relies almost entirely on hydro-electric generation, the province has the infrastructure and capacity necessary to provide baseload renewable energy deliveries and storage capabilities to its neighbor to the south. During periods when solar and wind generation in New York exceeds the local demand for renewable energy in the state, excess energy can be exported to Quebec to serve electric loads that would otherwise be supplied by hydro-electric generation.

The state needed an environmentally responsible means of transmitting reliable renewable power between Quebec and New York City, the state's largest load center. High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Light ® transmission technology, originally developed by Hitachi Energy, is providing that means - enough to power up to one million New York homes.

The Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) link between Quebec and New York City leverages the unique capabilities of the HVDC Light technology, including its flexibility to be deployed over long distances underground and underwater, to bypass legacy transmission bottlenecks and meet the growing demand for clean power.

The solution eliminates several difficulties that utilities encounter with transmission systems based on alternating current (AC) technology. For example, insulated high-voltage DC cables only carry a temporary charging current during initial energization of the circuit and, therefore, can be employed for power delivery over any distance underground or underwater. Thus, by employing HVDC, many of the siting and permitting difficulties companies face with traditional AC above-ground wires, including public concerns with unsightly transmission towers, can be addressed by constructing new transmission lines entirely underground in existing infrastructure corridors or underwater. In contrast, insulated high-voltage AC cables carry continuous alternating (60 Hz) charging currents that increase in magnitude with increasing cable length. Therefore, traditional high-voltage AC technology is not conducive to long distance underground and underwater construction since the charging current alone will utilize all of the capacity of the cable when it reaches a critical length.

Also, since the power frequency in an AC line produces an alternating magnetic field, placing AC transmission lines in existing infrastructure corridors, such as railway lines, can create unacceptable interference with signaling systems. HVDC Light technology eliminates such problems by converting the power to DC, which does not have any alternating magnetic field, and then converting the power back to AC at the receiving end for delivery to the local utility company for distribution to homes and businesses.

Hitachi's HVDC Light: Powering good into the future

As a New York City mandate requiring the installation of electric appliances comes into force, demand for electricity in the city will grow. With HVDC Light's ability to promote resource diversity and support overall resource reliability, the CHPE system will enable NYC to better meet this increase in electricity consumption.

HVDC Light further supports the state's climate goals by maintaining a low environmental impact, and its converter stations have a relatively small footprint that facilitate construction in a densely populated urban environment, such as New York City. Also, the CHPE project is expected to create 1,400 jobs from the construction phase through the first 30 years of operation, bringing an estimated $50 billion in economic benefits to New York state. The impact of the project is projected to be equal to removing 44% of passenger vehicles from the city. ² And because this implementation covers such a large population, it serves as a model that can be adapted to the needs of additional metropolitan areas, and in fact is being used in a similar project in Mumbai, India.

The complexities of meeting the climate crisis challenge around the world require expertise and capacity that spans the public-private spectrum. The private sector must make a long-term commitment to the development and distribution of renewable energy to meet public sustainability initiatives, and that can be accomplished only via partnerships between private companies and public entities. Hitachi's work on the CHPE system reflects the company's commitment to deploying innovative technologies to achieve social good by making it feasible to achieve critical sustainability goals.

To see Hitachi sustainability solutions in action, explore our Social Innovation case studies.

1

New York State, Governor Hochul Announces New Framework to Achieve Nation-Leading Six Gigawatts of Energy Storage by 2030, https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-new-framework-achieve-nation-leading-six-gigawatts-energy-storage#:~:text=Today's%20announcement%20supports%20the%20Climate,zero%2Demission%20electricity%20by%202040. .

2

PA Knowledge Limited, "Champlain Hudson Power Express," May 10, 2021, https://chpexpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/PA-Consulting-Tier-4-REC-Bid-Report_05-10-2021.pdf

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HVDC Power Transmission Technology Ensures Clean Energy for NY Homes

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Learn how Hitachi's innovative power transmission technology delivers green energy over long distances to power up to one million homes in New York without the need to install additional equipment along the transmission line.

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Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health