Climate Change and Its Impacts on Public Health in Inwood

Climate change can have serious impacts on the health of communities of color and low income, such as here in Inwood:

•   Climate change is causing more heat waves, which can lead to dehydration and hospitalizations.
•   More intense storms and flooding can cause power outages, increase mold presence, and damage homes.
•   Climate change amplifies air pollution, which worsens respiratory illnesses such as asthma.

Read Our Preliminary Recommendations

The Inwood Climate & Health Project
WE ACT for Environmental Justice and New York State Senator Robert Jackson co-hosted an Inwood community conversation on Saturday, August 17th from 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM at P.S. 5 Ellen Lurie School (3703 Tenth Avenue) to share information about how climate change affects health. We provided a space to listen to people’s concerns, stories, and ideas. And we invited volunteers to participate in future meetings to create a plan for addressing climate change and health issues. Together, we can compile important information about environmental health to better improve quality of life for Inwood.

The Inwood Climate & Health Task Force
As part of this Inwood Climate & Health Project, we formed a Task Force of volunteers from Inwood who are interested in developing an action plan to address specific health issues driven or exacerbated by climate change in Inwood. At our community conversation on . Our kickoff meeting on August 27th, 2019 included an educational workshop designed to strengthen each participant’s knowledge of these issues. Participants from that meeting then reconvened on August 17, 2019 and identified extreme heat as the issue the community would like to address. The Task Force then met on Saturday, September 7th, 2019 to create an action plan for addressing extreme heat in Inwood.