Spotlight on Climate: The good news is that you're alive

I'm in insurance, and sometimes I write about it. In 2004 my first of over 60 articles published in Airpark News explained why health insurance premiums were increasing prohibitively. A sentence in the first paragraph started with "The good news is that you're alive" and ended with "the bad news is you can't afford it." As a health insurance agent with expertise on the topic, I explained the causes including medical inflation, severity and frequency of treatments, new technology, aging populations, etc. It is a sad testament that in 2026 I still quote this article.

Back in 2004 I wasn't even thinking about climate change. Back then climate scientists knew what was coming, but many people did not. Now, common sense knowledge has made me change the end of the sentence to include the many effects of climate change. Now, insurance calculations include the many health effects of higher temperatures, reduced water availability, wildfire threats, crowded highways, air quality, overdevelopment, change in human diet due to higher crop losses, and all the other health consequences. Now I write "The good news is that you're alive; the bad news is you can't afford it, AND your life is at risk of becoming increasingly miserable."

Starting with heat. Sure, we like warmth, but only up to a point. This year we set new records in March with temperatures over 100˚F in Phoenix. As reported in the Daily Sun, Flagstaff set or tied the record for high temperatures for 12 straight days in March.

In Phoenix, severe summer heat now kills hundreds and sends thousands to the emergency room every year. Thirty-one consecutive days over 110˚F causes stress. Many suffer from heat-related illnesses, and all of us feel financial stress of paying for more air conditioning as utility rate hikes come into play. The stresses in Flagstaff include having to install air conditioning for the first time ever. Also, the added pressure on our housing market as people seek to escape the extreme heat in central Arizona for a weekend or for a summer.

Our health depends on water too. We need it to drink and grow food. We use it to cool ourselves and to transport our wastes. As temperatures rise, more water evaporates and less comes down from our watersheds. According to the Arizona Water Blueprint site from ASU, "Central Arizona … is facing deeper cuts in Colorado River supplies and approaching the limits of new urban development reliant on local groundwater. Yet, year after year, the region continues to attract more people and industry." Arizona's population is 7.6 million with associated growth in commercial and industrial activity. How can we work together to make sure water is conserved? What will we do when there is no longer enough water?

Wildfire threats, crowded highways and air quality issues are known by all. Wildfire risks have risen 380% in our drying Southwestern landscapes. This added risk has raised homeowners' insurance costs, and the added stress also affects people's health. Can we avoid the misery by growing our economy in less impactful ways?

We often don't think of rising food costs as being associated with climate change, but more frequent droughts, storms and warmth-promoted crop diseases are now causing about $1.63 billion in added crop losses every year. Not only does this contribute to rising food costs, but it is projected that such crop losses will change human diets across the globe enough to cause 529,000 to over a billion additional deaths per year by the year 2050. Fewer fruits and vegetables in the diet impacts people's health and makes them more prone to catching and spreading a wide range of illnesses.

Can we counter the misery factor? We know how to grow our Arizona economy on our abundant wind and solar energy resources. Will we do it? Solutions need to come from every individual as well as each business and political entity. Changes in our habits and trajectories are extremely difficult to agree upon and implement. We have no choice if we want to prevent our lives and those of our children from becoming more miserable as time goes by.