Opinion: Climate change harms patients’ health. Kamala Harris has a plan to help.

When Hurricane Beryl hit Houston last month, I worked some of the toughest shifts of my career, rivaling those of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients sat waiting for hours on end. Some even stayed in hospital hallways for days due to a backlog from a power outage causing us to not have access to the hospital internet and vital medical devices. Simply put, we were flying blind.

When a hurricane hits, the normal emergencies we see don’t stop — strokes, heart attacks, and car accidents still happen. These normal emergencies magnify in intensity when there is no power to operate essential medical machinery.  No power means our dialysis patients can’t get to their appointments and face life threatening electrolyte abnormalities. No power means no oxygen for patients with chronic lung disease, causing them to come to already overrun emergency rooms. No power in Houston, Texas in the middle of summer means countless patients of all ages with heat stroke and heat exhaustion. 

Our healthcare system was overwhelmed for weeks because of just one storm. You don’t have to turn on the news to see that we are having more and more “once in a generation” storms. Just look at Hurricane Debby — over a foot of rain flooded North Carolina, resulting in major flooding and injuries to innocent bystanders. 

In the last 10 years, Hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018 caused serious harm to North Carolina residents. Hurricane Florence alone caused over $17 billion in damage and is considered the most expensive storm in North Carolina’s history, resulting in some hospitals to close due to fears of being overwhelmed. Each hurricane season brings stronger storms and leaves more devastation than the last. 

Although no one storm can be attributed to climate change, we now know that the frequency of severe weather events will increase as our climate warms. Most people in my emergency department that week probably weren’t thinking of climate change and probably don’t think about it on a daily basis, but for me it was abundantly clear — the health of my patients is already being impacted in a negative way by a changing climate.

Heat increases exacerbations of conditions like asthma, congestive heart failure, strokes, and many other conditions. Warmer temperatures will also bring more wind events and hurricanes, which will mean more missed dialysis sessions, lack of oxygen, and hard days for doctors and patients alike in the ER. 

Last month’s hurricane and its aftermath allowed me to see that the upcoming election will decide how we respond to climate change and its impacts on our health. North Carolina is a battleground state this election cycle, with recent polling showing the Harris-Walz ticket leading or tied with the Trump-Vance one. 

These two campaigns have vast differences in their policies to address climate change, and I believe the Harris-Walz campaign is taking steps to address our climate crisis in ways that will benefit North Carolina. Vice President Harris was the deciding vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which included the largest investment to combat climate change in American history. Governor Walz signed into law bills that would reduce carbon emissions, protect water sources, and ensure Minnesota is a net zero emission state by 2040.

Donald Trump’s Project 2025 is a stark contrast to the Harris-Walz plan. Not only does Project 2025 not believe in climate change, it will allow polluters to tear apart North Carolina’s clean air and water, reverse the progress we’ve made towards fighting climate change, and ban federal agencies from ever mentioning it again. Unregulated pollution will continue to change our climate and lead to more and more powerful storms that will inevitably harm more people. It cannot be allowed to come to fruition.  

Not too long ago, I saw issues like climate change as abstract that we would one day tackle — that is no longer the case. Every day I see the impact of it on my patients and fellow healthcare providers. This election is about a future in which we can all have health, happiness, and the pursuit of our dreams — the Harris-Walz administration is our path into that future.