Climate Change Is Already Exacerbating Current Social Inequities

Although climate change is a public health emergency-a situation that requires urgent attention-it might be more aptly described as a crisis, a crucial moment when a decision needs to be made. Although climate change can be described as both an emergency and a crisis, we are at a critical point in how we will respond as a society. Many may balk at using the term "crisis" to describe how climate change is affecting the world; we still have government officials and the media posing questions and arguing on whether they "believe" in climate change (e.g., see the 2020 presidential and vice-presidential debates). There is no doubt that climate change is real and human caused, and we are in a real crisis when it comes to our response. This year alone in the United States, there have been record-breaking heat waves in the West and Southwest, wildfires from Washington to California with hazardous levels of smoke blanketing the nation, and a very active Atlantic hurricane season bringing numerous storms to the Gulf and East coasts1-all while under pandemic conditions, with COVID-19 spreading rapidly across the country. Duringthese disasters, our public health systems were tested and shown to be a "colossal failure,"2 allowing our communities to become vulnerable and suffer health consequences related to climate disasters and COVID-19, with COVID-19 killing more than 240 000 people in the United States.