How the U.S. health care system impacts climate change

• The group points out that Kaiser Permanente has already cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 29% over the last 10 years, largely through the use of solar power and other environmental initiatives.
• Outside the U.S., Britain’s National Health Service is another model — it’s working on cutting its emissions, too.

The catch: The health care industry is diverse and is rarely on the same page on anything, let alone an issue that’s not directly related to health care. But the industry should consider climate change a health care issue, according to Commonwealth — because events like extreme heat and cold, as well as the weather disasters we’re seeing, “take a major toll on health.”