Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Senator Bill Frist wants everyone to know that the climate crisis is a health crisis. “After decades in medicine, in that operating room as a surgeon, and then 12 years in the United States Senate, and then a lot of time as a healthcare entrepreneur, I came to see something fundamental, that the health of our planet and our globe…and the health of the human being himself, we’ve regarded those as separate, when in truth, they are inseparable,” Frist said at the TIME Earth Awards in Manhattan on April 23.
Frist began his career as a physician and surgeon before joining the Senate in 1995. Since retiring, he’s turned his focus to the climate crisis.
Now, he believes that to get people to connect with the climate crisis it has to be made personal. “No one wants their child to develop asthma from polluted air, no one wants to watch a loved one suffer from a heatwave,” Frist said. “When we view the Earth’s health… through the lens of human health—we touch those individual hearts and minds and move people with that common language.”
Frist said his experience advocating—and seeing meaningful change—on big issues like reducing smoking, controlling HIV, and slashing childhood traffic fatalities, has shown him that climate action is possible—as long as people come together with a shared goal. And the will is there: 70% of Americans recognize climate change as a serious concern.
He urged doctors and nurses to “be the messengers” of the climate crisis. “It’s those healers and doctors and nurses who are on the front lines. It’s them responding to the health impacts of the natural disasters that we know are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity, the spreading of diseases from deforestation and the changing climates that we know all are occurring, and the repercussions of polluted water and soil on health.”
He closed out his speech with a message to “lead with health.” “Because in the end, it isn’t just about saving the planet.” Frist said. “It is about saving lives and saving people.”
TIME Earth Awards was presented by Official Timepiece Rolex and Galvanize Climate Solutions.