Climate Change

At its May meeting this year, the board of trustees of the Washington State Medical Association voted to support the "No on 2117" campaign, pursuant to WSMA policy adopted in 2018 that specifically supports investments in clean energy via a fee on large suppliers of CO2-emitting products. The policy was adopted by the WSMA House of Delegates in response to a then-pending ballot initiative establishing a cap-and-invest system, a precursor to Senate Bill 5126 from 2021, which created the Climate Commitment Act.

In anticipation of the November general elections, the No on 2117 campaign is circulating a sign-on letter for Washington health professionals opposed to Initiative 2117. If you want to add your voice, click here to learn more and to sign on to the letter.

Initiative 2117 is also in direct opposition to WSMA policy that acknowledges climate change as a critical public health issue. The WSMA's House of Delegates, since 2016, has adopted policies that urge the association to work on solutions that both reduce pollution and address the issue of climate change to promote healthier, sustainable communities.

As noted in WSMA policy, climate change is a critical public health issue:

• Potential effects of climate change on human health include higher rates of respiratory and heat-related illness, increased prevalence of vector-borne and waterborne diseases, food and water insecurity, and malnutrition. Persons who are elderly, sick, or poor are especially vulnerable to these potential consequences.
• The WSMA supports educating the medical community on the potential adverse public health effects of global climate change and incorporating the health implications of climate change into the spectrum of medical education, including topics such as population displacement, heat waves and drought, flooding, infectious and vector-borne diseases, and potable water supplies.
• We recognize the importance of physician involvement in policymaking at the state, national, and global levels, and support efforts to search for novel, comprehensive, and economically sensitive approaches to mitigating climate change to protect the health of the public; and recognize that whatever the etiology of global climate change, policymakers should work to reduce human contributions to such changes.
• We encourage physicians to adopt programs for environmental sustainability in their practices, share these concepts with their patients and their communities, and to serve as role models for promoting environmental sustainability.
• We encourage physicians to work with local and state health departments to strengthen the public health infrastructure to ensure that the global health effects of climate change can be anticipated and responded to more efficiently.
• We support epidemiological, translational, clinical, and basic science research necessary for evidence-based global climate change policy decisions related to health care and treatment.

The potential health impacts of I-2117

A new white paper from Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Initiative 2117: A Risk to Our Health – An Analysis of the Threats to Health Posed by I-2117, evaluates the significant health impacts of Initiative 2117 and the repeal of Washington’s Climate Commitment Act.