Health organizations across the country are urging President Obama and Congress to recognize the damaging public health effects of climate change and to take measures that will reduce its impacts and the causes of climate change itself.

In a letter signed by many organizations, including the Lung Association and American Medical Assocation, the groups underscored how climate change harms the public:

As temperatures rise, more Americans will be exposed to conditions that can result in illness and death due to respiratory illness, heat- and weather-related stress and disease carried by insects. These health issues are likely to have the greatest impact on our most vulnerable communities, including children, older adults, those with serious health conditions and the most economically disadvantaged.

The letter greatly emphasized the need to protect the EPA in its mission to protect the public’s health:

We must also address the root of the problem, which means reducing the emissions that contribute to climate change. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for protecting the public’s health from climate change, and we urge you to fully support the EPA in fulfilling its responsibilities. We also urge opposition to any efforts to weaken, delay or block the EPA from protecting the public’s health from these risks.

The letter concluded with a recommendation that the president and Congress do something that they failed to do in the last congressional session: pass clean energy and climate change legislation that has strong protections for public health.