The WICCI Human Health Working Group works to ensure that Wisconsin is knowledgeable about and prepared for the human health impacts of climate change. We use Wisconsin-specific data to ensure that our tools and resources contain the best available information.
We work on systems, policy, and environmental change to create more impactful, lasting climate- and health-related strategies. We create new tools and resources to continue to better understand the human health burden of climate change in Wisconsin. We enact the Wisconsin Idea, bridging the university with the state and the people of Wisconsin.
Climate change impacts pose individual, local and regional health risks in Wisconsin and will severely impact at-risk populations by causing death from illness, extreme heat, floods, impaired air quality, the spread of disease, or increased exposure to pollution.
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Summary of Issues and Impacts
Health Impacts of Climate Change Are Not Felt Equally by All
Groups more sensitive to the health impacts of climate change include children, pregnant people, older adults, certain occupational groups, and persons living with disabilities or chronic diseases.
When considering climate actions or policy to protect the health of Wisconsin communities, it is important to recognize how marginalized communities (for example, Native Nations, communities of color, migrant and low-income communities) are overburdened by climate exposures due to historical and ongoing injustices.
Strategies must include partnerships with people and communities who are most affected by climate health inequities to inform and guide the implementation of effective climate change interventions and policies.
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- American Public Health Association Climate Change and Health Playbook.
- Climate Change and Human Health: Who’s Most at Risk?
Extreme Precipitation Events and Flooding
Extreme precipitation events have significantly increased in Wisconsin over the last decade. These events are projected to become more frequent by mid-century because of climate change, with very extreme rainfalls seeing the largest increase.
The health impacts of flooding are numerous and include injuries and infections, carbon monoxide poisoning, electrocution, hypothermia and drowning.
Flood events can produce increases in bacterial and viral infections and waterborne outbreaks among customers of municipal drinking water systems and recreational users of lakes and rivers.
Contamination of surface water with phosphorus and nitrogen may lead to blooms of toxin-producing blue-green algae that can pose a risk to residents, visitors, and their pets. Additionally, people can become injured during flooding events from debris in flood waters, and during clean up in their homes.
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Extreme Heat
Extreme heat, measured by the number of extremely hot days (90 degrees or higher) in Wisconsin is likely to triple by mid-century, and the frequency of extremely warm nights (low temperature of 70 degrees or above) is expected to quadruple. Extreme heat is associated with increased morbidity and mortality.
Certain populations, especially children under four, older adults, pregnant people, people with chronic conditions, and socially isolated individuals are at increased risk of heat-related death.
Worsening air quality due to heat may lead to respiratory distress, and additional airborne pollen may lead to increased asthma exacerbations and other allergic episodes.
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- Heat Vulnerability Index
- Heat-Related Illness on the Job – Worker’s Compensation Claims in Wisconsin (pdf)
Impaired Air Quality
Rising temperatures and changing climatic conditions in Wisconsin are expected to create conditions favorable for the creation of air pollutants and seasonal increases in pollen that adversely affect health. Additionally, climate change is creating warmer and drier conditions that can fuel the spread of wildfires, which lead to poor air quality miles away from the source.
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Ground-Level Ozone
Climate change creates conditions, including heat and stagnant air, which increases the risk of unhealthy ozone levels forming. High ozone levels affect people with lung diseases, children, older adults, persons who work outdoors, and other at-risk populations by causing immediate breathing problems, cardiovascular harm, and premature death.
Particulate Matter
Hotter temperatures and lack of rainfall increase the risk of drought, dust storms, and wildfires, all of which create particle pollution. Larger particles can irritate eyes, nose and throats, and fine particles can get deep into parts of people’s lungs or even in the bloodstream, causing trouble breathing, lung cancer, low birth weight, heart problems, and premature death. People with heart or lung diseases, children, and older adults are the most likely to be affected by particle pollution exposure.
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Pollen and Allergens
The increased length and severity of the pollen season is leading to potential health consequences for those already affected by allergies and asthma. The increasing amount of pollen may have a greater effect on children, who tend to be more vulnerable to ambient pollen. Moisture from increased rainfall and floods can also lead to increased mold growth that worsens allergies and exacerbates asthma symptoms.
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Disease Vectors
A warmer, wetter climate could create more favorable conditions for contracting West Nile Virus, carried by mosquitoes, and Lyme disease carried by deer ticks. Changing environmental conditions may also support new mosquito-borne diseases in Wisconsin and a northward shift in the range of the lone star tick and other tick-borne diseases into Wisconsin.
Whether a changing climate in Wisconsin will increase the chances of domestically acquiring diseases is uncertain due to insect-control efforts and lifestyle factors, such as time spent indoors, that reduce human-insect contact. Infectious disease transmission is sensitive to local, small-scale differences in weather, human modification of the landscape, the diversity of animal hosts, and human behavior that affects insect-human contact, among other factors.
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Extreme Cold and Winter Weather
While climate change is causing overall global temperatures to rise, it can lead to more frequent and intense extreme cold events. This is primarily due to disruptions in the polar vortex and jet stream, changing the way we experience winter weather.
Additionally, a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture which can lead to more intense snowstorms and blizzards in areas where the temperatures are still cold enough for snow.
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Mental Health
Climate change, severe weather events, unpredictable weather patterns, heat waves, droughts, and floods, can have a negative impact on mental health. Warmer weather may increase aggression and violence due to the impacts of heat on arousal, which decrease self-regulation and increase hostile thoughts in individuals.
Stress and aggression can put strains on social relationships and have impacts on physical health, such as memory loss, sleep disorders, immune suppression, and changes in digestion.
Additionally, rising temperatures and extreme heat can impact people suffering from depression and other mental illnesses, and psychiatric medications can increase individuals’ sensitivity to heat or sun, making it difficult for them to regulate their body temperature in a warming climate. Climate change is also increasing climate change anxiety — also referred to as eco-anxiety, eco-grief, or climate doom.
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- Yale Experts Explain Climate Anxiety
- The rise of eco-anxiety: scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change
Access to Healthy Food
Climate change is causing species to shift, which affects communities that rely on growing and harvesting traditional food. Growing and harvesting traditional food is a way for tribal communities to reconnect to their identities and communities, heal intergenerational trauma, and tackle substance abuse and mental health issues. Tribal communities especially face challenges in accessing healthy, traditional food that also serves as medicine.
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- Oneida Nation Food Sovereignty Strategic Plan (pdf)
- Tribal Food Sovereignty Resources
- The impacts of climate change on tribal traditional foods
- Improving Indigenous Food Sovereignty through sustainable food production
Cumulative Impacts of Climate on Daily Life
Climate change makes existing health problems worse, drives up the cost of health care, and makes other challenges in our communities harder to tackle. Where we live, go to school, work and play can influence our health and climate change directly impacts those things. In many Wisconsin communities, especially those already facing economic and health challenges, people are exposed to multiple environmental and social stressors at the same time.
These can include polluted air and water, extreme heat, nearby highways or factories, unsafe housing, limited access to healthy food, and stress from economic hardship or discrimination. Over time, these exposures stack up — harming people’s health and quality of life in ways that go beyond any one issue. These layered problems can lead to more illness, shorter lifespans, and fewer opportunities to thrive.
Example
Some older homes or homes built in flood plains are not built to handle extreme weather and are often considered lower cost housing. These homes can become inundated with flood water during storms, leading to damage and mold. If people living in the home have limited resources, cleanup of a flooded home can further strain financial resources and growing mold can exacerbate asthma, raising personal health care costs.
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Recommended Solutions/Strategies
These recommended solutions are based on the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change Report and best practices from across the nation. This list is not exhaustive of all solutions and strategies and will be updated as more becomes known. Both climate justice and environmental justice recommendations need to also address health equity concerns.
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Develop and distribute communication resources to increase awareness and knowledge of climate change’s impact on health
Effective communication can help people to understand the risks of climate change and empower them to take actions that protect themselves and their communities. Supporting local, trusted messengers is the key to success.
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Train healthcare and public health professionals on climate conversations
Physicians, nurses, physical therapists, public health staff, community health workers, and other health workers are often at the front line, supporting individuals, families, and communities as they live through and react to climate’s impact on their health. These professionals are trusted messengers in their communities and training can empower them as they hold these climate and health conversations.
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- Integration of key competencies in sustainability in health professions: Competency-Based Curriculum at UW–Stevens Point Doctor of Physical Therapy Program
- Tools for social determinants of health screening in clinical practice: Wisconsin State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) (pdf) and SHIP Guide (pdf)
- Patient infographics on impacts of heat and environment on our health: Wisconsin Environmental Health Network
- Let’s Talk Health and Climate (pdf)
- Planetary Health is Public Health
- The Role of Medicine in Planetary Health
Focus on watershed action
Increase flood resiliency resources and tools and assess watershed level flood risks in Wisconsin. More resilient communities recover better following extreme weather and are associated with positive health outcomes. Engage water managers and farmers to consider vegetative buffers that protect streams from microbial contamination from livestock.
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Execute resilience planning
Integrate processes which empower regional and local units of government to continue adaptation and resilience planning forward. The goal must be to build processes which are iterative and enable communities to withstand system shocks, whether climate, health or economic in nature. More resilient communities recover better following extreme weather and are associated with positive health outcomes.
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Improve energy data collection
Agencies should work collaboratively to accurately report emissions, inform other reporting and carbon tracking efforts, monitor progress, and provide data in decision-making to help Wisconsin reach its goals. Accurate data will inform emission reduction plans and enable agencies to track progress and make mid-stream corrections to maximize emission reductions and meet targets.
Examples
Support clean energy to improve human health
Increase Focus on Energy and utility incentive funding. Align programs with energy and emissions-reduction goals, low-income energy efficiency and clean energy programs. Improved energy efficiency will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health outcomes through improved housing conditions and energy access. Additionally, weatherization for home temperature and energy efficiency can have health related co-benefits.
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Support state efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Wisconsin state agencies are reducing greenhouse gas emissions within the state’s asset portfolio through energy and water conservation, waste management, energy production, building efficiency, transportation use, procurement policies, and guidance for local governmental units.
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Support state and local efforts to expand safe “active transportation” (for example, biking and walking) and shift transportation modes away from private motorized vehicles
“Complete Streets” policies require new roads to safely accommodate different modes of travel. Increasing safe bike-ability and public transit can promote physical activity and subsequent health benefits. Ensure that new transit projects accommodate for people with disabilities.
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Adopt a cumulative impacts approach to climate health decisions
This means looking at the full picture of what communities are facing — not just one pollutant or one permit at a time. It also means partnering with the people most affected by these overlapping harms to shape policies and solutions. By adopting a more comprehensive and inclusive approach, Wisconsin can better protect public health, address long-standing environmental injustices, and support healthier, more resilient communities statewide.
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Environmental and Climate Justice Issues
It is essential to recognize that some communities — such as Native Nations, communities of color, migrants, and low-income groups — face greater harm from climate change and environmental hazards because of long-standing injustices like land dispossession, discriminatory policies, underinvestment, and exclusion from decision-making. These injustices have led to higher exposure to air and water pollution, extreme heat, and unsafe housing and work conditions. To develop climate policies that truly protect public health in Wisconsin, we must partner with the communities most affected by these environmental and climate burdens. Their lived experiences and leadership are critical to shaping just and practical solutions.
Differences in health impacts are important to understand to find solutions that work for everyone. The Human Health Working Group is exploring how changes in climate will affect the health of different groups of people in Wisconsin. For example, we have learned:
- Heat-related illnesses and deaths are worse for communities located in heat islands. A study in 2020 found that unfair housing and city planning practices have led to areas that are much hotter in mostly low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. The heat island effect is often intensified in low-income neighborhoods because of poor housing and not having air conditioning.
- Areas in Wisconsin that were historically “redlined” (where banks refused to lend money for housing) are more likely to experience flooding than areas that were not.
- A warmer and wetter climate can put stress on the food system and food production in Wisconsin. Rural counties often have less resources to combat food insecurity as a result of climate change. Food insecurity is associated with high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity, and mental health disorders.
Health policy changes need to include solutions for communities most impacted by climate change. Policy and planning change should happen on the local level and include resiliency principles and consider overburdened groups during the planning and implementation process. The Human Health Working Group calls on decision-makers to consider everyone in Wisconsin with thoughtful, compassionate climate action planning efforts.
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Stories
Our Team
Partners
- Climate Solutions for Health Lab
- Dane County Office of Energy and Climate Change
- Healthy Climate Wisconsin
- UniverCity Alliance
- Clean Wisconsin
- Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin – Love My Air
- MKE FreshAir Collective
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
- Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS)
- Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC)
- Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection
- University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension
- Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA)
- Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards (WALHDAB)
- Wisconsin Environmental Health Association (WEHA)
Members
- Kate Beardmore (co-chair), Climate and Health Program Manager, Wisconsin Department of Health Services, katharine.beardmore@dhs.wisconsin.gov
- Jonathan Patz (co-chair), Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Department of Population Health Sciences, UW-Madison, patz@wisc.edu
- Caitlin Warlick-Short, Research Program Coordinator, Health-First Climate Action Research Center and Outreach Specialist, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment
- Megan Christenson, Epidemiologist, Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, Wisconsin Department of Health Services
- Sheena Cook-Fuglsang, Regional Community Health Coordinator (Southwestern Wisconsin), UW–Madison Division of Extension
- Andrew Lewandowski, Pediatrician, UW Health
- Nathan Brown, Clinical Assistant Professor, UWSP DPT
- Megan McBride, Managing Director, UniverCity Alliance
- Jessica LeClair, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, UW–Madison