the NUANCE // a community health podcast. · Medicine Explained.

108: A Surgeon explains how CLIMATE Change impacts obesity, the Economy, & more. | Dr. Johnson

·39 min·3 clips

Air pollution causes preterm births. Wildfires cause cancer. Why weren't we taught these connections in medical school?

Host Amanda interviews Dr. Shanita Johnson, surgeon and Climate and Health Equity Fellowship director, about climate change's devastating health impacts. Dr. Johnson traces her awakening to the crisis through Hurricane Dorian's unprecedented destructiveness in 2019, realizing that medical education fails to teach climate-health linkages despite their ubiquity in clinical practice. She details mechanisms: air pollution causes preterm births and maternal complications; heat causes heat stroke; wildfires release carcinogens (benzene) linked to lung and breast cancers; hurricanes destroy healthcare infrastructure while increasing demand; disasters cause 15+ year mental health trauma. She emphasizes that climate change is the biggest health threat facing humanity—not just extreme events but allergies, sea rise, flooding. Critically, she centers environmental justice: fence line communities (near factories, highways, polluted rivers) experience disproportionate impacts; Brown and Black communities and lower socioeconomic populations bear heaviest burden. She advocates for physicians to leverage authority to educate communities, push policy change, and use EPA/NOAA tools (noting recent tool removal) to identify high-risk zip codes. The fellowship trains year-long cohorts in climate science, advocacy, and policy, with fellows producing capstone projects creating state/national impact.

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