Review of United States senators’ website position statements on climate change and health

Climate change represents a threat to the health of all Americans. We wanted to know if federal representatives are informing their constituents about this risk. To answer this question, we reviewed the official websites of all 100 United States senators to determine if they made statements about he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of climate change and health 2022-05, Vol.6, p.100104, Article 100104
Main Authors: Rublee, Caitlin, Inglis, Robert, Maibach, Edward
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Climate change represents a threat to the health of all Americans. We wanted to know if federal representatives are informing their constituents about this risk. To answer this question, we reviewed the official websites of all 100 United States senators to determine if they made statements about health, climate change, and the health and/or environmental justice relevance of climate change. We also determined their vote on the only climate change-related bill to come to a senator vote during the 116th Congress (S.J. Res 53). We found 86% of senators’ websites mentioned health, 51% climate change, 21% climate change and health, and 7% environmental justice and health. Among voting senators, 46% voted yes, including 76% of those with websites mentioning climate change, and 100% of those whose websites mentioned an interaction of climate change with health or environmental justice. There is opportunity for senators to improve website messaging on climate change and health.
ISSN:2667-2782
2667-2782
DOI:10.1016/j.joclim.2021.100104