Coloradans are facing increasing health risks across our state due to the impacts of increased pollution to our air and water and the ongoing impacts of climate change. The science is clear that lung and cardiovascular diseases, exacerbated asthma and childhood asthma, harm to reproductive health and even premature death are just some of the ways that public health is worsening as our globe warms. Increased wildfires and their impact on our air quality are a direct result of climate change. Increased ozone alert days in our cities and increasing heat in our rural areas lead to worsening health outcomes for those with common underlying health conditions like COPD or diabetes. To protect the health of our communities, we advocate for policy and regulation change to curb the worst impacts of climate change 

While all Coloradans are at risk of the health impacts caused by our changing climate, we know that communities of color and economically-challenged communities are at a higher risk of serious health consequences due to their disproportionate exposure to the climate crisis and the lack of resources available to address it. These communities are often located close to some of our state’s worst polluters. These inequities are inexcusable and must be called out for particular focus. Everyone, regardless of their background, should have healthy air to breathe, clean water to drink and protection from climate change. To work towards those goals, we focus on addressing air toxins and pollutants released by refinery operations in our air and water across the state and are committed to advocating for public policy solutions that mitigate that as well as hold polluters accountable.

According to the CDC as well as the American Public Health Association, climate change is a public health crisis. Unfortunately, many decision makers and members of the public don’t recognize that connection or make climate change reduction a priority in conversations about improving public health. A survey conducted by Yale showed that most Americans have not considered how global warming might affect individuals’’s well being, and few can name a specific way in which climate change is harming our health. There’s no way that we can mitigate the effects of climate change if we aren’t starting from the same place, so one of our aims is to change the public narrative and speak about climate change as a public health issue. We do this by ensuring that the voices of health professionals are part of the conversation with lawmakers and the public. Coloradans need to hear from health experts- nurses, doctors, and researchers - who see and understand the physical impacts of climate change on our bodies and on public health, in order to create real solutions that tackle the threat of climate change head on.