Climate change is driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. The process of extracting and burning fossil fuels produces pollution that harms health through a variety of pathways. Because of drivers like income inequality and structural and systemic racism, these harms are felt disproportionately by frontline communities—often communities of color and low-income communities—which are located near polluting facilities.
Fossil fuels are driving climate change, which I think of as a 'meta' problem—it underlies other problems and makes existing problems worse. It has its fingerprints on everything. It's causing new diseases and exacerbating existing diseases and disparities, disrupting our health care system and straining already underfunded public health systems.
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