Florida Clinicians for Climate Action (FCCA) thanks the Palm Beach Post for their expose’ article, “The Smoke Comes Every Year. Sugar Companies Say the Air is Safe.” We concur with their findings.
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20 July, 2021
Nate Monroe’s article on Jacksonville’s recent coal ash spill is a call to arms to our elected leaders to demand that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection regulate coal ash for what ...
18 July, 2021
The rising heat index is a part of the overarching issue of climate change in South Florida. Extreme heat affects all Floridians on some level.
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30 June, 2021
Despite the serious threats extreme heat presents to our health, livelihoods and economy, we tend to perceive intense heat events differently from other climate disasters, says Kathy Baughman-McLeo...
25 June, 2021
Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) just signed into law SB 1128/HB 919, “Preemption Over Restriction of Utility Services,” which was pushed through the legislature. It prevents local governments from deciding which en...
23 June, 2021
The sweltering summer heat may send swimmers diving head-first into the nearest body of water, but climate change may contribute to life-threatening risks for swimmers as waterborne pathogens thrive and multiply...
29 May, 2021
Miami’s new chief heat officer has called for greater federal and state action on the lethal threat posed by rising temperatures after becoming the first official in the US a...
27 May, 2021
More than 30,000 Floridians sought emergency medical care during the past five years for heat-related illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and some fear ...
20 May, 2021
I think that for a lot of people, climate change feels like a far away problem. So they think about the climate change and they think it’s going to affect there, ...
17 May, 2021
Miami-Dade County now has an official “chief heat officer.” That may sound like a gimmick — we live in Florida, of course it’s hot — but it’s deadly serious, and climate change is making ...
09 May, 2021
Research into the social determinants of health teaches us that health outcomes are more likely determined not by our DNA, but by our zip code. Only 10 percent of our health outcomes are de...
30 April, 2021
Research into the social determinants of health teaches us that health outcomes are more likely determined not by our DNA, but by our zip code. Only 10 percent of our health outcomes are de...
30 April, 2021
Since the 2000s, 16 children have been diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels as a result of a parent working at the Gopher Resource plant.
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08 April, 2021
Education. Income. Gender. Ethnicity. Community. All these things can impact our health. Dr. Cheryl L. Holder and Dr. Vikram Patel join us on this episode of #DearWorldLive on #WorldHea...
07 April, 2021
Whether gas is burned in a power plant or piped into our homes to cook our food and warm our homes, most people are not aware that natural gas pollutes. This is a critical problem fro...
30 March, 2021
As a way to combat climate change, local governments in California and other progressive enclaves over the past two years have passed ordinances banning the use of natural gas as an energy ...
19 March, 2021
Our first guest for season two of our podcast is Dr. Cheryl Holder, class of ’80. We talk with Dr. Holder about how environmental racism impacts Black health outcomes. Long te...
25 February, 2021
And why is nobody recognizing that there are people now that are impacted with this climate. And it's not polar bears. And it's not just the buildings. And by the same time t...
23 February, 2021
Most states have energy efficiency programs to help homeowners save money on their electric bills. Through these programs, power companies are required to spend a fraction of their sal...
13 February, 2021
For more than two decades now, Jeannie Economos has been advocating for farmworkers’ health. Pesticide exposure was her first focus. But for half that time, she’s also zeroed in on...
19 January, 2021
“As we enter into a time of climate change, one of the things we are realizing is these communities that have been systematically oppressed are now the spaces people with money wan...
08 December, 2020
On Memorial Day weekend 2020, the skies opened up over Miami, Florida. Sheets of rain skidded off roofs, flooded streets, and overflowed canals, with three inches pouring down...
01 December, 2020
I’ll never forget the day I learned about climate change. My college professor drew a line across the chalkboard — from one end of the room to the other.
He drew two small hash marks,...
26 October, 2020
Three Democratic members of Florida’s congressional delegation highlighted a new report on climate change focusing on the benefit to the state should the U.S. abide by the 2015 Paris...
20 October, 2020
Consider the cantaloupe. It’s a decent melon. If you, like me, are the sort who constantly mixes them up, cantaloupes are the orange ones, and honeydews are green. If you, lik...
15 October, 2020
Thursday, local leaders gathered in Orlando with a warning: Florida's already hot and humid weather will get worse if we don't act. Orlando, along with Tampa and Miami, are now home to a ...
24 September, 2020
I recently moved back to my native state of Florida, and I love it. I’ve seen some cold, snowy Januarys up North.Yet summer in our tropical paradise feels hotter than the ones I remem...
24 September, 2020
Labor Day Weekend usually signals the end of summer, but this year, it seems like the record heat isn’t ready to release its grip quite yet. Another heat wave is on its way, signaling...
04 September, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic isn’t the only thing challenging the U.S. health care system. EVEN BEFORE COVID-19 put the American health care system to the test, that system was u...
26 August, 2020
“Black snow” is what some residents along Lake Okeechobee’s Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) call the soot and ash that falls on their community during sugarcane burning season. A f...
19 August, 2020
Daisy Busby found out her husband had COVID-19 on a day when the temperature at Fabian Dale Dominguez State Jail topped 96 degrees. Two weeks later, more than 500 inmates the...
31 July, 2020
On a sweltering Sunday afternoon in North Miami, Carmen Arocho, 54, has taken her four grandchildren to a nearby supermarket — not to get groceries but to escape the oppressive hea...
24 July, 2020
MIAMI – Florida is moving ahead with plans to dramatically expand its network of electric vehicle charging stations along major interstates and highways. State spending is driving the expans...
20 July, 2020
Two new environmental laws in Florida signed this week include efforts to improve septic systems and increased fines for sewer overflows and other related violations. But for low-income commun...
02 July, 2020
Twenty-four to 48 hours. After a storm, that’s all it takes for mold to compromise a home or the health of the family living inside. From under the kitchen sink to ceiling tiles and insulation...
01 June, 2020
On April 16, 2020 the president’s administration outlined a three-phase approach to reopening the nation as the spread of coronavirus slows. This plan includes a 14-day sustained decrease...
29 April, 2020
One afternoon, a middle-aged woman visited our clinic, hoping to improve her blood sugar. The woman — I’ll call her Flor — wasn’t yet diabetic, but her sugars were higher than normal, a...
23 April, 2020
COVID-19 has demonstrated disproportionate effects on African Americans due to high incidence of chronic health conditions. Especially diabetes, heart disease, severe obesity a...
17 April, 2020
Are humans to blame for the rise in infectious disease we're experiencing worldwide? In this episode of Think Again, NBC News correspondent Andrew Stern investigates the link between deforestatio...
09 April, 2020
As a physician, I have an income and access to care. I am privy to information the average person is not. So when I received an email a few weeks ago informing me that I had been unknowin...
06 April, 2020
When you think about the doctors and nurses you see in your daily life — what we call clinical care — you may be surprised to learn that such care addresses only 15% of your health ca...
02 March, 2020
AH, THE SUPER Bowl, a bonanza of overeating and watching men brutalize each other ( brain health be damned), punctuated by 30-second reminders to spend money. This weekend the spectacl...
31 January, 2020
As part of the NBC6 Climate Check series of stories regarding our changing climate and environmental issues, we showcase in-depth reporting on the rising threat of killer heat, food sustainabi...
25 December, 2019
Cheryl Holder, MD, first began to connect the dots a few years ago, when her patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma began needing to use their prescription inhal...
08 October, 2019
As physicians on the front line of public health, we know that energy efficiency reduces pollution, improves human health, and lowers energy costs. That’s why we are deeply concerned ...
09 August, 2019
Florida faces a clear and present danger from the climate crisis. Unfortunately, despite widespread calls in Florida’s media prior to the June Democratic presidential debates, only 15...
17 July, 2019
Climate change: Study says if we don’t make changes, the heat will be ‘above and beyond what Floridians are used to today.’ A pint-size heat wave last month smothered South Florida wi...
16 July, 2019
Dr. Cheryl Holder was volunteering at the Overtown Music & Arts Festival this past weekend when an 11-year-old girl became extremely ill. The temperature was in the low 90s, but the heat index level ...
16 July, 2019
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris referred to climate change as the “climate crisis” and “an existential threat to us as a species” when the subject came up during the second Democratic pres...
28 June, 2019
In the hours before the second half of the Democratic presidential debates, the streets surrounding the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts were not as rowdy as they were a day earl...
27 June, 2019
Ann Jackson was born with sinus problems. But in the last few years, her leaky nostrils have grown unbearable. “The pollen has been high this last year — last summer and this summer it’s been...
16 May, 2019
The topic of climate change is coming up in the offices of doctors in South Florida, as a group of physicians says it is already seeing the effects of climate change on people's health. “I try t...
04 April, 2019
On a rainy day this past week, we went to visit a man named Jorge in a working-class neighborhood of Miami wedged between a highway and industrial warehouses. We walk up to the front door of a di...
24 March, 2019
Hearing that 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record reminded me of a family I visited a few years earlier. I was with the medical and nursing students of FIU’s Herbert Wertheim Colleg...
20 February, 2019
On a hot day in September, Charlene Jones celebrated her 61st birthday by herself. The former nursing-home cook made herself a birthday dinner of turkey and dressing, macaroni and cheese, string...
13 November, 2018
When you hear climate change you might think melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and very hot days, but do you ever think it’s currently making you sick?
Ken Conklin does. “There are coughing ...
09 March, 2018
When most people think about climate change — if they do at all — what usually comes to mind is melting glaciers, starving polar bears and flood waters lapping at the doors of Miami Beach...
09 February, 2018
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Climate change is harming our health now. Some people are more vulnerable than others. If we do nothing, these health harms will only increase. Clinicians are trusted messengers and can play an important role in protecting public health.
