McClellan Introduces Resolution on Extreme Weather’s Threat to Children’s Health and Well-Being

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) led 32 of her colleagues to introduce a resolution calling on Congress to acknowledge and address the threat extreme weather poses to children’s health and well-being.

H.Res. 585 urges Congress to develop solutions that account for children’s unique developmental vulnerabilities as they relate to extreme weather conditions and highlights enforceable and adaptive measures, such as timely and accessible public extreme weather alerts; education and training for health care professionals, educators and caregivers; and expanded access to safe places for children and families during extreme weather events. 

“Just in the past month, extreme weather events have utterly devastated communities across the country — and we know that climate change only accelerates the frequency and intensity of these events,” said Congresswoman McClellan. “As a mother, I am fighting to advance climate and environmental policies that ensure a safe, habitable planet for our children and future generations to thrive. My resolution calls on Congress to implement solutions to comprehensively protect the health and well-being of our nation’s children, who have the most at stake in the decisions we make today.”

The resolution lays out specific impacts of extreme weather on child and adolescent health, including: 

• Children’s disproportionate exposure to pollutants in the air, increasing levels of wildfire smoke, and changing dust patterns that negatively impact children’s developing bodies and behavioral patterns;
• Extreme heat’s link to impairment in children’s cognition, making it harder for them to learn at school, and an increase in schools across the country closing for heat days, disrupting academic performance; and
• The disproportionate impact of life-altering trauma due to extreme weather disasters, including separation from or harm to caregivers, interruption in education, and other adverse mental health impacts that exacerbate the mental health crisis children and adolescents already face.

McClellan’s resolution is endorsed by Moms Clean Air Force, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American Association of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Medical Informatics Association, American Public Health Association, Association of Community Health Nursing Educators, Association of Public Health Nurses, Children & Nature Network, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Climate Mental Health Network, Climate Psychiatry Alliance, Climate Psychology Alliance, Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations, ecoAmerica, Environmental Defense Fund, First Focus on Children, Green Schoolyards America, Mothers Out Front, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National League for Nursing, OneGreenThing, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, Society of Behavioral Medicine, Trust for America's Health, Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action, and ZERO TO THREE. 

“Extreme weather events, supercharged by climate pollution, are going to become more frequent, more intense —and more dangerous,” said Dominique Browning, Founder of Moms Clean Air Force. “We are indebted to Representative McClellan for her leadership in protecting our children. With the weather on steroids, we must consider children's unique vulnerabilities as we create and fund adaptations. Moms Clean Air Force will continue our fight against climate and air pollution. But we must also adapt to the damaging effects now baked into our weather systems, so we can keep our children safe.”

Read the full resolution text here.