"We have to start understanding these as the real costs of climate change. We are paying these costs now. In my state of Oregon, people are going to start getting sick and dying in the next few days of the wildfire smoke choking the air. When they show up to the hospital with a severe heart attack, or stroke, or respiratory exacerbation, maybe it will be attributed to the wildfires, but probably everyone will just be focusing on getting through their shift, and the context of this one death, this one illness, will be missed. But make no mistake, the coming wave of hospitalizations, ER visits, and deaths is not random; it is due to climate change."

Erika Maria Moseson is a practicing, board-certified pulmonary and critical care physician.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Apocalypse now: climate change, cardiac arrest, and the price of inaction." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/09/apocalypse-now-climate-change-cardiac-arrest-and-the-price-of-inaction.html)