Listen now (29 mins) | Listen Now Despite a long history of engagement in various political and social and issues, for example, from the nuclear test ban treaty to the global AIDS epidemic, healthcare professionals have been largely absent in addressing the climate crisis. This helps explain why the health care industry has been, in sum, absent from addressing what the World Health Organization has defined as the greatest threat to human health in the 21st century or what Nobel Price economist William Nordhaus (noted for his work on the carbon tax) has termed the "colossus that threatens our world." As listeners of this podcast may recall the US healthcare industry’s own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions account for 10% of total US GHG emissions, 25% of global healthcare GHG emissions and 4.5% of total global GHG emission. Recently, however, a letter drafted by U. of Washington's Dr. Howard Frumkin and APHA’s Dr. Georges Benjamin addressed to DHHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, outlining in detail regulatory policy measures the Secretary should take to address the climate crisis, was co-signed by 65 medical professional associations including, for example, the Alliance for Nurses for Healthy Environments, Medical Students for a Sustainable Future and Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication.