Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our nation’s health, prosperity, and safety – we need our climate funding to reflect that reality.

Four years ago, a storm in metro Detroit dumped more than eight inches of rain on the city within several hours, completely overwhelming the city’s aging stormwater infrastructure. The storm – historic for its unprecedented devastation – turned local streets into rivers, submerged cars underwater, flooded homes and businesses with raw sewage, and triggered power outages that left people trapped in their homes without electricity. Thousands of residents were impacted by the storm’s damage, but it was the city’s low-income, senior and disabled residents who suffered most. Many, without insurance and chronic health conditions, faced increased threats following the storm as they waited for assistance and clean up.

The Eastside Community Network (ECN) was one of the organizations that residents turned to for a range of support in the days, weeks and months after the catastrophic flooding event, from finding help to properly clean up flooded homes for residents who were unable because of their age or health conditions to filling out applications for federal assistance.

Earlier that year, ECN had transformed its headquarters to serve as a resilience hub to meet local resident’s critical needs in times of disaster and beyond. In the aftermath of the storm, residents were able to use ECN’s hub for device charging and refrigeration of critical medication and as a safe gathering place in times of uncertainty. ECN has since become a core partner in the Resilient Eastside Initiative, along with the city of Detroit, Brilliant Detroit and Elevate to support a network of hubs with solar power, battery backup and other critical systems to support city residents in the event of power outages, floods, heatwaves and other climate events or emergencies.

Thousands of miles away in the San Joaquin Valley of California, which includes the city of Fresno, currently there are between one and 17 days per year that are too hot for children with health conditions such as obesity or diabetes to play safely outside. However, with global temperatures steadily increasing, scientists predict there would be between three and 15 weeks per year during which it would be too hot to play safely outside. This could occur as soon as 2035 – just 10 years from now.

In Miami, where the city has experienced an average increase in days above 90°F (32.2°C) from 84 days per year in 1970 to 133, outdoor workers – gardeners, farmers, day laborers and construction workers – lack local, federal and state regulations that guarantee them shade, periodic breaks and water, forcing workers to choose between their health and feeding their families. Climate and health advocates have joined farmworker and labor organizations to push for heat protections for outdoor workers for years but a state bill passed in 2024 prevents local governments from requiring heat exposure protections for workers.

Building climate resilience and healthy communities

Climate change is affecting people in real ways every day. High heat, more extreme weather, and rising sea levels increasingly – and often catastrophically – impact our health and well-being. While we are all affected, risks are compounded for low-wealth communities and communities of color who have experienced generations of policies and practices that unfairly expose them to air and water pollution, compromising their health and shortening their lives.

Working together, we can and must protect every community’s safety and ensure that all of us – no matter who we are or where we live – have the opportunity to be healthy and thrive.

This includes safeguarding the air we breathe and the water we drink, as well as the places we spend time – like schools, hospitals, churches and places of worship, parks, community centers, supermarkets and stores – and the forests, grasslands and natural areas on which we all depend.

To do this, we must work with communities to address the systems, structures and policies that unfairly put them and their health at greater risk based on race, ethnicity or economic status.

Progress is possible, and the most effective solutions are designed and implemented by those who know their communities best.

Stemming from the belief that climate change is one of the greatest threats to our nation’s health, prosperity and safety, affecting clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter. The Kresge Foundation’s Environment and Health Programs collaborated to launch the Climate Change, Health & Equity initiative (CCHE) in 2019.

This article originally appeared in “Alliance Magazine” and this excerpt is reprinted here with permission. Read the complete article here: The climate crisis is a public health crisis – we need to treat it like one