Office of Climate Change & Health Equity Budget Approved

By Kwase Lane

President Biden’s request for $3 million to fund the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity has been approved. With John Balbus as its interim director, the organization will seek to create a climate change strategy and make better use of the resources the federal government already has.

According to Scientific American, Balbus’ former boss laments the small amount of funding. “It is a teeny-weeny budget for what needs to be done,” Birnbaum said.

Ed Maibach, George Mason University’s Communication Director for the Center for Climate Change, thinks much of the work regarding climate change still lies in education. Many people don’t realize how the climate crisis will personally affect their way of life. The office hopes that their intersectional view of climate change and the issues it presents will send shockwaves throughout Health and Human Services (HHS). This could be the first step to a government that understands and accounts for the ways that shared struggles must be tackled with nuance.