Hospital emergency rooms tell us a lot about climate and the environment, more than we realize. Last summer when the terrible heat wave hit the Pacific Northwest, the ERs filled with people literally dying from the heat. For some heat victims even putting them in body bags packed with ice didn’t lower the body temperature enough to save them. The heat just shut their bodies down.
Last fall a dozen health journals from all over the globe published an editorial calling for real action on the climate crisis we now have because of heat. And the New England Journal of Medicine, the premier medical journal, launched a series on climate and health. And 61 of the Nation’s largest hospital chains have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
Noel Coward’s 1931 ditty, “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the Noonday Sun,” takes on new meaning in this world of increasing heat. Perhaps the Maserati driving Senator should spend some time in the noonday sun. I wonder if he thinks about his children’s future.
Prayer for the Day
We say we marvel in your creation, O Source of all life,
We say that we are astonished at its variety;
But our actions belie our words,
For, in truth, we look to the earth only for what it can give us.
Your creation is more than what we take of your precious resources,
For we know that all life is connected through your hand,
In the name of the One who came to show us the way,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The greatest threat to global public health is the continued failure of world leaders to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5° C and to restore nature.
- Marina Romanello, lead author for joint journal editorial
Social determinants and one's physical environment play an even greater role [than traditional health care]. It’s imperative that we focus where we can have the greatest impact.
- Craig Cordola, Exec. V.P., Ascension Health Care System
Do not invite death by the error of your life, or bring on destruction by your handiworks,
Because God did not make death and does not delight in the death of the living.
For God created all things so that they might exist, and the creatures of the world
Wisdom 1: 12-14