Obama cites public health in urging climate change laws

WASHINGTON — Seeking to rally support for new rules on climate change, the Obama administration is stressing how it can damage public health and shorten human life.

"The planet is warming, leading to impacts on human health and our environment," Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Tuesday in opening a White House summit on climate change and health.

While Republicans question the cost and necessity of Obama's climate change proposals, the president said in a videotaped message to the summit that government needs to address the threat.

"The cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of action," said Obama, who is seeking both congressional legislation and a global agreement on climate change, and meeting resistance on both fronts.

Industrial pollution is giving rise to global warming and increasing the risks to people with asthma, lung disease and other respiratory problems, said Murthy and other administration officials.

Climate change is also generating more extreme weather events that include violent storms, increased wildfires and rising sea levels that generate more flooding, officials said.

Rising temperatures also create economic problems, officials said, from higher electricity bills to reduced productivity.

In his remarks, Murthy also cast climate change as a moral issue, saying its health effects target society's most vulnerable, including children, the elderly and the poor.

The White House Summit on Climate Change and Health came a day after the administration released a report estimating an additional 57,000 deaths annually because of poor air quality by the Year 2100.

As the U.S. negotiates with other countries on a global climate agreement, Obama last week picked up a key global ally: Pope Francis, who issued an encyclical calling for global action.

Domestically, the president faces opposition from members of the Republican-run Congress who say his climate change and environmental plans would hurt the economy through the over-regulation of businesses.

The House plans to vote soon on an appropriations bill that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing regulations that GOP members say would close more than 90 power plants.

"Every plan liberals hatch on this issue would hurt American workers," said Cory Fritz, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Another key Republican — Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the Republican chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — has described global warming claims as a hoax.

The White House summit is part of a weeklong series of events designed in part to mark the two-year anniversary of Obama's "climate action plan."

As part of Tuesday's event, the White House issued a new list of efforts to help local communities deal with the fallout from climate change.

Among the plans:

• Creation of a government-run interactive map to help officials across the country identify areas of risk. A White House statement said that, for Americans who rely on electricity to operate ventilators and other medical equipment, "a power outage can be a matter of life or death."

• New early warning systems for areas about to be hit with major heat waves.

• A new "challenge series" for entrepreneurs and government officials "to promote innovative approaches and highlight technologies available for understanding the health implications of climate change and improving resilience to adverse effects."

• Commitments by schools and medical organizations to raise public awareness of the health effects of climate change.