A May 27 Press Herald article pointed out the many ways that climate change is impacting Mainers’ health, including asthma, heatstroke, Lyme disease and poor mental health.

This information initially felt overwhelming. As I thought about it, though, I realized that many of the actions Maine is taking are already addressing some of these problems.

For example, installing heat pumps. These are good for the environment, but since they also provide air conditioning, they’re great for helping people cope with rising temperatures and avoiding heatstroke. I personally love being able to use a few buttons to switch between cooling and heating.

As for asthma and other respiratory illnesses, the American Lung Association released a report in February that highlighted how switching to electric vehicles and clean electricity would prevent millions of asthma attacks and other respiratory symptoms, plus save the lives of hundreds of infants. Hybrids won’t have quite the same impact, but they also significantly reduce emissions, especially when vehicles idle.

For Lyme disease, while we can’t stop ticks from spreading, I was encouraged to see that MaineHealth is helping work on a Lyme vaccine.

All this is important to remember. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by climate change or think individual actions are too small to matter, but that’s not true. Every bit helps, and taking action can help with climate anxiety.

Even better, these personal actions don’t only help the health of the planet – they can make things better for you, your family and your neighbors.

Erica Bartlett
Portland