Climate change is today’s greatest public health threat.1 As the nation’s leading voice in public health, the American Public Health Association (APHA) has demonstrated an enduring commitment to climate change as a health issue. As far back as the mid-1920s, AJPH reported on the health impacts of climate change.2–4 Shaping the development of future organizational efforts, APHA members created the organization’s first policy statement on climate change in 1995 (updated in 2007 and 2015). APHA continued to bring attention to climate change and public health, making it the theme of National Public Health Week 2008. Since then, evidence of climate change’s causes and effects has mounted, but politicization of the issue and low prioritization by the public has made progress toward mitigation and adaptation slow.
Climate change’s threats to health5 demand urgent action from the public health community. To this end, APHA sought to strengthen the coalition of public health practitioners and cross-sectoral partners needed to build momentum on climate change action. As a first step, APHA resolved to take a more strategic, proactive approach to address the health effects of climate change.
MAKING A PLAN
In summer 2016, APHA set out to develop a multiyear strategic plan to address climate change and health mitigation and adaptation. Members, experts, and partners gathered at APHA headquarters in Washington, DC, to generate the following vision for the future: “Climate change is a national priority with broad political and social support. Our nation will address it in ways that improve public health and health equity, creating the healthiest nation in one generation.”
To advance this vision, participants in the two-day planning meeting set strategic goals and action steps. These supported building awareness of the health impacts of climate change; enabling a climate-healthy environment; promoting equitable policies; and inspiring and promoting multidisciplinary research to inform decisions.
Out of the Climate Change and Health Strategic Plan came the 2017 Year of Climate Change and Health, a campaign to (1) raise awareness by educating APHA members that climate change is a public health issue and not exclusively an environment issue, and (2) mobilize leaders who are interested in climate change but have not yet begun to take action.
MOBILIZING A MOVEMENT
At its October 2016 Annual Meeting, APHA held the interactive “Climate Changes Health” roundtable to unveil the new strategic plan and discuss how the 2017 Year of Climate Change and Health could advance the plan’s goals. Attendees included APHA member and affiliate leaders and partners, who suggested topics to cover (Appendix A, available as a supplement to the online version of this article at http://www.ajph.org), planned activities to support, and proposed partnerships to include in the campaign.6
With a sense of urgency heightened by concern about changing federal priorities, APHA began building on the roundtable’s suggestions. It hosted a survey disseminated via social media to APHA’s Twitter followers in which 333 respondents voted on what they believed to be the most pressing current topics in climate change and health. On January 12, APHA announced the 2017 Year of Climate Change and Health to more than 300 members, stakeholders, and key influencers at the Partners Kickoff Meeting in Washington, DC. There, informed by the survey results, participants set monthly campaign themes and proposed activities to plan and audiences to reach throughout the year (Box 1).
Year of Climate Change and Health Monthly Themes
| Month | Theme |
| January | Introduction to the Year of Climate Change and Health |
| February | Climate justice and health |
| March | Clean energy |
| April | Transportation and healthy community design |
| May | Air quality, lung and heart health |
| June | Mental wellness and resilience |
| July | Agriculture and food safety and security |
| August | Water quality |
| September | Extreme weather |
| October | Vulnerable populations, focus on children |
| November | Tribal and indigenous health |
| December | Co-benefits |
Note. Monthly themes were determined by members and stakeholders who attended the Partners Kickoff Meeting in January 2017 in Washington, DC. The themes were selected from the top 12 results from a survey question disseminated via social media that read, “Please choose the top five topics you find most pressing in today’s climate change and health discussion, or tell us about a topic you are most passionate about.”
On February 16, APHA cohosted the Climate & Health Meeting at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, alongside former vice-president Al Gore and other notable climate change leaders. Presenters highlighted the challenges and potential solutions for combating the health impacts of climate change. The audience of more than 200 climate change champions left the meeting armed with the scientific evidence and central messages that were key to collectively move forward.
GALVANIZING MOMENTUM
The Year of Climate Change and Health built momentum over the months, with more than 55 organizational partners joining the campaign by midyear and the engagement of member expertise throughout. Through these collaborations, critical information continues to reach a wider audience to improve understanding of and action around climate change and health.
Throughout 2017, APHA published dozens of climate change and health articles on its many news outlets, including in this journal, on APHA blogs, in its newspapers and e-newsletters, on its Web site, and on other social media platforms. Authored by APHA staff and partners, the diverse array of materials presented educational insight, offered solutions, and provided commentary on the urgent need for action on climate change to protect public health—including policy, advocacy, and legislative actions.
APHA’s bimonthly Year of Climate Change and Health newsletter enjoyed a reach of more than 60 000 individuals and shared links to informative APHA posts and publications, as well as its many webinars, briefings, workshops, fact sheets, and other activities in 2017. Through continued partnerships and collaborations, the momentum built by the yearlong campaign has the potential to further expand the network of climate change champions.
ADVANCING THE SCIENCE
This November in Atlanta, APHA’s 2017 Annual Meeting and Expo will be hosting more than 12 000 attendees, who will gather to learn about the latest research and expand their professional networks. The theme, “Creating the Healthiest Nation: Climate Changes Health,” guides the content of the scientific sessions and the topics that will be presented by the exhibitors. The meeting marks the apex of the 2017 Year of Climate Change and Health campaign, updating attendees on best practices and novel, evidence-based research related to climate change. Attendees will leave the meeting energized with heightened awareness of the connection between climate change and health, and that they will advance the conversation on climate change in their respective sectors of public health and translate the latest research into practice.
As part of APHA’s ongoing commitment to climate change and health awareness, education, and mobilization, this AJPH supplement provides the public health and scientific communities with the latest research, best practices, and policies related to climate change and health. In the coming months, APHA will translate the research presented in the “Climate Changes Health: Research, Translation, Policy and Practice” issue into digestible briefs for wider public consumption.
APHA has been a standard bearer for the intersection of climate change and health for nearly a century. Propelled by the Climate Change and Health Strategic Plan, the Year of Climate Change and Health is only the most recent effort to raise awareness, increase understanding, and encourage action on the issues surrounding climate change and health. The work does not end with 2017, but rather it inspires future conversations and action on climate change and health solutions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Year of Climate Change and Health was supported in part by the Kresge Foundation (grant R-1607-262407). In addition, many partners offered support in kind.
The authors thank the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their support of the American Public Health Association’s climate change and health work.
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