Right now, the temperature is 14 degrees above the average daily temperature for this time of year. This past week, it’s been as much as 18 degrees above what it usually is for this time of year, and with a very brief, one day reprieve, we are due for many more days of temperatures ranging from between 90 and 100 degrees. It feels even worse with the humidity.

The weather has been getting hotter, earlier, and the hot spells are lasting longer each year. Along with it, we’re seeing increasing numbers of people suffering from heat-related illnesses and deaths. Climate change has gotten to the point of no return, as the summer promises to get even hotter, and the air quality increasingly ranks as dangerous.

Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, NJ, has prepared for an influx of illnesses and injuries in their emergency department from the extreme heat and dangerous air quality. Along with the dangers of heat stroke, people with respiratory health issues are in danger of illness from the rise of carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmosphere, as oxygen levels also drop. People with asthma and emphysema, as well as children and elderly people, are especially vulnerable.

People on certain medications are also endangered by the extreme heat. Antidepressants, antihistamines, stimulants, beta-blockers, diuretics, ACE inhibitors, thyroid hormone replacement medications, and anti-psychotic medications can all make reactions to the heat, or exposure to the sun, even worse. I have fibromyalgia and migraines, and several of my medications warn me to stay out of the sun and/or extreme heat, as I will burn more easily (and I burn easily to begin with) and would suffer from heat exhaustion or heat stroke. I have been extremely ill for several weeks, which I believe started with having to do campaign work outdoors in extreme heat. I’ve had all the symptoms of heat exhaustion that will not ease up, despite staying indoors in air conditioning. What happens to people who have no air conditioning, are powerless to control what’s in their environment, or those who are homeless? Economically strapped people, children, and the elderly are the most vulnerable in these circumstances. People who live in areas already devastated by air and water pollution, such as most residents of Camden, suffer even more, because when the air quality is bad in better off communities, it’s worse in theirs.

As a former school teacher in Camden, I experienced days when school was canceled, because the air quality was so bad, it was deemed dangerous to go outside, and that was without the extreme heat. Anyone living close to Covanta’s trash-to-steam facility in Camden, knows how bad it can get. This is why we need to change to a national agenda for environmental justice. We’ve spent decades trying to warn our representatives in Washington, D.C. that environmental and energy policies have to change, before we reach a critical point of no return for the environment and climate change. They haven’t listened, and we’re seeing the consequences of their prioritizing the use of fossil fuels, and production that has led to a rise in the carbon content in the atmosphere and tremendous rises in global temperatures. In Las Vegas this week, the temperature got up to at least 117 degrees. That’s where NJ is heading, as we continue business as usual, enriching the oil companies and polluting industries, as our loved one and our planet dies from their profit-driven neglect and abuse. It’s time for a change. It’s time to bring back a movement for a Green New Deal, creating jobs in areas that will also save the environment. This is one of the reasons I am running for the House of Representatives in NJ Congressional District 1.

Robin Brownfield
Green Party of New Jersey candidate for the US House of Representatives in Congressional District 1