MADISON, Wis. -- More than 4,000 medical professionals from across the country are demanding policy action on climate change. The coalition includes dozens of doctors and nurses in Wisconsin, who say the effects are visible in the patients they serve.

Nearly 90 health-care professionals around the state have signed a letter asking their patients to get behind political candidates willing to consider the issue.

Kickapoo Valley Medical Clinic medical director Dr. Joel Charles, who practices family medicine in Crawford County, said relying less on fossil fuels and more on renewable energy might help turn things around.

"Less still births, better learning development in kids, less asthma in kids, less heart attacks," he said. "So, from birth to death, fossil fuels are making people more sick."

In a new report, University of Wisconsin researchers said climate change also has put the state at greater risk for diseases spread by insects. They cited warmer winters and increases in annual rainfall. While polls show more people, including younger conservatives, acknowledging the impact of climate change, many candidates have expressed support for the oil industry.

Charles said having the medical community speak up could turn more heads and get policymakers to take meaningful action. He said he feels it adds a credibility factor that could have a huge impact.

"Doctors and nurses are some of the most trusted professions in society," he said.

In Gallup's annual ethics survey, nurses have topped the "trusted profession" category for 17 years in a row. One of the groups in this coalition is the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, which has the backing of several state medical societies, including Wisconsin's.

The letter is online at medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org, and the UW climate-health report is at ghi.wisc.edu.


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A bill to require big corporations to be transparent about their own carbon footprint needs a vote in the California Senate by the legislative deadline on Monday, or it will die.

Senate Bill 260 would require U.S.-based corporations that do business in California and make more than $1 billion a year in revenue to disclose their full greenhouse-gas emissions to the state.

Melissa Romero, legislative affairs manager at California Environmental Voters, said the data is necessary to fight global warming "because we can't really have a serious conversation about reducing carbon emissions without addressing the corporate sector's contributions to pollution - when just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global industrial emissions."

Senate Bill 260 has long lists of supporters and opponents. The bill doesn't include details of how it would be enforced, and opponents say it would increase the costs for companies that have to comply.

The bill also would require the California Air Resources Board to produce a report that estimates how much these companies would have to reduce their emissions in order to avoid overall global temperature increases over 1.5 degrees Celsius. That's considered the limit to avoid climate catastrophe.

Romero noted that companies would have to release data not only on their energy usage, but about their carbon footprint, up and down the supply chain.

"That is really where the biggest information gap exists," she said, "and also, where a lot of the emissions from large corporations are coming from."

Critics of the bill claim it would discourage big companies from doing business with smaller ones that are unable to meet the greenhouse-gas reporting requirements. California has set a goal to lower greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

A new report analyzes the economic effects of a changing climate on Idaho. It's the first to look at state-specific circumstances.

Katherine Himes is director of the University of Idaho's James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research, which compiled the research. Himes said the goal was to create a nonpartisan, evidence-based resource for industries and policymakers.

"The big key here is those changes - temperature, precipitation and snowpack," said Himes, "because that then influences what happens to agriculture, energy, forests, human health, infrastructure, rangelands, recreation and tourism."

On the current climate-warming trajectory, increasing temperature, changing patterns of precipitation across the state and lower snowpack are expected in the coming decades for Idaho.

An advisory board for the report included businesses, nonprofits and government officials, including Native American tribal leaders.

Kelly Olson is a retired administrator for the Idaho Barley Commission. She said the report allows sectors of the economy such as agriculture to prepare for the future.

"It's a call to arms, I think," said Olson, "as a state to look at that changing water situation and what we can do about that, which we just can't turn on a spigot and change the flow of water overnight."

Himes said it's important that this resource is accessible. She said there's technical information but it also includes one-page summaries with high-level looks at the data.

"There are ways to visualize the information, a lot of tools and resources on the website as well," said Himes. "We wanted it to be as interactive as possible so that policymakers could use it, decision makers could use it, and so forth."

New Mexico climate activists commemorate today's Martin Luther King Jr. Day by walking to the State Capitol in Santa Fe from four directions, calling on lawmakers to take bold action to combat climate change.

The Capitol, known as the Roundhouse, was designed to represent the sun's rays, as well as the four directions, four seasons and four phases of life.

Robb Hirsch founded the Climate Change Leadership Institute nearly 20 years ago and is now its executive director. He said it's appropriate for people to rally on MLK Day.

"It's really perfect on Martin Luther King Day to have the community rise up in a nonviolent, peaceful manner," said Hirsch, "but rise up strongly, to demand action on this critical, vital issue for our lives."

Hirsch said the walkers will convene outside the Roundhouse at noon.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - Santa Fe branch, the Green Amendment for the Generations group, 350 New Mexico, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter and many others will participate.

New Mexico has long relied on oil and gas to fuel its economy, but Hirsch said the event is less about demanding specific policies during this year's short legislative session than ongoing, unequivocal action.

"There's a lot of equivocating going on," said Hirsch, "because a lot of the elected officials, unfortunately, are taking campaign dollars from the very industries that we need to be regulating."

Hirsch said he believes climate change is a civil rights issue of our time - because while it affects everyone, those most likely to be affected are people of color and of lower income.

"Martin Luther King Day is so vital for this," said Hirsch, "because the Civil Rights Movement - the brave citizens who participated in that - showed us a course of action to get things done when people thought there no way to get the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed."

The New Mexico Legislature holds short, 30-day sessions in even-numbered years, typically focused on the next year's state budget.