Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Debra Hendrickson used to avoid discussing climate change at work. The paediatrician in the US state of Nevada didn’t talk to parents about how rising global temperatures affected health – but that changed in 2018.
That summer, Hendrickson was treating a boy for exposure to wildfire smoke. When one child’s father asked what was happening, Hendrickson decided to be blunt: “It’s climate change,” she said.
Six years later, Hendrickson regularly discusses the topic with patients and parents.
She released her first book, The Air They Breathe: A Pediatrician on the Frontlines of Climate Change, in July to explain how climate change affects health.
“I wrote this because I wanted parents to understand the urgency of the moment we’re in,” Hendrickson said.
Answer: how climate change is hurting the health of children around the world
