Hi there! Welcome to Easy A–Your go-to source for quick and easy actions you can take in five minutes or less about the issues you care about.

Remember learning about the hole in the ozone layer back when we were in school? And that to fix it, we had to stop using aerosol hairspray?

We also learned the importance of recycling to preserve natural resources. And none of us will ever forget to cut through plastic six-pack rings so that animals don’t get caught in them once they are thrown away!

The bottom line is, we know how to take action when there are problems threatening our environment. It’s the same with climate change.

The climate crisis is serious but solvable. Scientists understand it and have given us solutions including solar and wind power; improving transportation, engineering, and architecture; and implementing sustainable farming and land management.

Of course, those are big, systemic changes – not exactly the same as putting newspaper in the recycling bin. But there are also small, individual changes we can each take to help every day — things like planting native pollinators instead of grass in our yards, or eating less meat and dairy.

We’re going to dig deeper into how to fight climate change on August 19 when meteorologist and climate action advocate Chris Edwards returns for another event with us! He’ll be joined by Tina Catron from EDF Action for How You Can Fight Climate Change.

Earn your Easy A today by signing up for this event.

We’ll walk through actionable steps we can take, big and small, to reverse the course of climate change. Remember, if you sign up for our events, we’ll email you a recording afterwards. So even if you can’t make the live event, sign up and watch when your schedule allows!

When Chris joined us for Climate Change 101, he was honest. He said solving the climate crisis is going to be hard, but reminded us that we’ve done hard things before (like giving up that Aqua Net!) and we can do it again. Join us!

We’re not doomed yet, but we’ve wasted a lot of time. That’s one of the takeaways we learned from meteorologist and climate change communicator, Chris Edwards, when he joined us recently for our virtual event, Climate Change 101: What You Need to Know.

Chris talked about the science behind climate change and how it affects us all. One of the impacts he discussed echoed what Dr. Alice Chen wrote in your Easy A last week — the climate crisis is also a crisis for our health. Watch what he had to say about the impact of climate change on our health in this short video:

Climate change doesn’t just hurt our bodies, it also hurts the health of animals and ecosystems.

Chris showed us that climate change is simple, serious, and solvable — if we act soon. Next week, we’ll take action together.

If you want to earn extra credit this week, you can watch the full Climate Change 101: What You Need to Know event with Chris here.

Thank you to our guest author this week, Dr. Alice Chen! Learn more about Dr. Chen below and follow her on Bluesky here.

When I was a kid, summers meant riding our bikes around the neighborhood, lazing around outside watching clouds and ladybugs, and generally relaxing and recharging. Today, our summers are filled with suffocating heat waves, choking wildfire smoke, and more hurricanes and floods destroying entire communities.

Last week, we saw the heartbreaking consequences in Texas. Extreme flooding has left hundreds dead or missing, including dozens of children and counselors from a girls’ summer camp.

Our climate is changing fast, and it has quickly become a crisis that threatens the health and well-being of our children and our communities. Last summer broke heat records that had just been broken by the summer of 2023. From 2004 to 2021, heat-related deaths increased by a factor of 4. Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related hazard.

We are at a high-stakes crossroads where we have a real but narrow opportunity to build a better future and avoid the most catastrophic outcomes of the climate crisis. As a doctor and a mother of two kids in elementary school, I am constantly reminded of why climate action is so important. As hot days increase, I worry about my spunky kids wilting and lying with their eyes closed on the couch as they suffer from a dehydration headache. I worry about my family in the Bay Area and Miami where worsening drought, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods threaten the homes where my husband and I grew up.

My colleagues and I are spreading the word about the health impacts of extreme heat and worsened air quality that follows. We are reminding people to hydrate, get in the shade or somewhere cool, and watch for signs that your body is not handling heat well – headaches, nausea, extreme sweating, lethargy.

We are asking people to check in with community members who are at higher risk because they are outdoor workers, student athletes, people in neighborhoods with few trees or no air conditioning, pregnant, older, very young, or if they have medical conditions that put them at risk like heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, mental health conditions, disabilities, and autoimmune diseases. It doesn’t take much — just a quick text, call, or knock on your neighbor’s door.

Beyond heat risks, we are raising the alarm that climate change is increasing wildfire smoke, smog and pollen in the air — increasing the risk of asthma and affecting childhood brain and lung development.

Here’s the good news:

We are not helpless, nor should we be hopeless. We made a lot of progress over the last few years, after Congress passed historic climate legislation that sparked a boom in clean energy growth.

It was a win-win, showing we don’t have to choose between protecting our families and revitalizing the economy. Those investments helped generate over 400,000 clean energy jobs and produce cheaper energy — all while reducing toxic pollution that sends people to our hospitals with asthma, heart attacks, strokes, and lung cancer. In my own household, we have cleaner air because we’ve been able to switch away from our gas stove and say goodbye to the gas station, too. The investments sparked a clean energy boom that won’t be stopped.

Here’s the bad news:

In the Republican budget bill signed last week, Trump rolled back the clean energy tax credits that drove so much progress. The bill also slashes money for weather forecasts that save lives in climate disasters. And it threatens our kids’ health — gutting clean air and water programs, then ripping Medicaid away from millions of families.

If you’re outraged, you are not alone.

Trump’s bill is more unpopular than any major legislation passed since 1990. Days after signing it, Trump’s approval rating has plummeted. When people learn what’s in the bill, they hate it.

There are three ways we can protect our health, air, water, and climate:

1. Organize in our communities to help people understand the link between fossil fuels, climate change, and our health.
2. Accelerate our transition to clean energy by taking advantage of tax credits before they expire at the hands of Congress.
3. Show up. As families feel the effects of the Republican budget, they need to know that Trump and his allies in Congress are responsible.

In congressional offices, town halls, social media, and our communities, we can show lawmakers — and our neighbors — that we won’t be silent when our kids are in danger. We can demand action to protect our families from climate threats.

I know it matters. In 2009, I co-founded a physician advocacy group called Doctors For America, and after decades of failed efforts to pass healthcare reform, we helped get it across the finish line by elevating the stories of real people and what they needed to protect their health.

We can do it again.

Alice Chen is a licensed MD and public health advocate. She was a founding board member and Executive Director of Doctors for America — a grassroots organization of physicians and medical students in all 50 states who push for policies that improve the lives of their patients.