What I renamed “The Big Beastly Bill” passed the Senate on Friday. It signed into law dramatic cuts to our public health care system. In the meantime, over at Health and Human Services, RFK Jr. has fired all the experts of the vaccine advisory committee, threatening the supply of life-saving immunizations for millions of Americans.

It is unfortunate that RFK did not stick to something he used to be good at — protecting the environment. Because the Trump administration’s obliteration of the regulations protecting Mother Earth will dramatically worsen what the World Health Organization and major medical societies have called the number one threat to public health in the world — human-caused climate change.

Yet EPA administrator (and non-scientist) Lee Zeldin has called Climate Change “a religion.” He is threatening to overturn the Endangerment policy, the set of principles that —since the Clean Air Act of 2009 — has linked greenhouse gas emissions to environmental degradation. This EPA is cutting hard-won limits on tailpipe and powerplant emissions, protection for wetlands, and restrictions on “forever chemicals” in water supplies, among other destructive acts.

The administration is not only ending tax credits and incentives for wind, solar, and other renewable energy systems but encouraging the dirtiest sources of energy production — coal. Oil production was already increasing in the Biden years, and the meteoric rise in electricity needs for the AI data centers is leading to increased natural gas production with elevated methane emissions from leaks in the pipelines. Methane is 20-30 times more efficient in trapping infrared heat than carbon dioxide.

To make matters worse, funding for research into the health hazards of climate change, how to protect communities from climate-related disasters, and even simply forecasting the weather is being shredded by HHS and the administration. Does Donald Trump and his minions really think that if we don’t know a hurricane is coming it won’t hurt us?

Greenhouse gas emissions are fueling the kinds of increased temperatures, melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea levels and extreme weather predicted by climate scientists decades ago. The Pioneer Valley and two thirds of the country suffered our first “heat dome” with triple digit temperatures the last week of June. The epic heat came with record setting humidity. Get used to it, because increasing ocean temperatures cause more water vapor to rise into the air, which prevailing winds blow from the South. Increasingly our summers will reflect that of the tropics.

Excessive heat leads to increased risk of dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. It increases heart rate, respiratory rate, arterial blood pressure, effects blood coagulation, and exacerbates chronic conditions. Each dangerous heat day causes .07 deaths/100,000 people. There were 42 extreme heat days last year globally. Phoenix, for example, had a whopping 70 days with temperatures of at least 110 degrees. Thousands of people in the U.S. and hundreds of thousands globally die from extreme heat every year.

Mosquitos and ticks love the combination of high heat and humidity. As a result, the distribution and prevalence of Lyme disease, dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever, schistosomiasis, and the plague are increasing worldwide. One scientific study found that 1/3 of food borne illnesses like salmonella can be traced to climate change.

Rising sea levels and more extreme weather are causing increased flooding on the coasts, and around rivers and lakes around the world. Wildfire seasons are lasting twice as long; fires are bigger and more intense. Vast areas of Canada burn every summer: On many days we can smell the smoke that adds to the increasing number of days with unhealthy air quality indices.

Flooding can (of course) lead to drowning, injuries, hypothermia, shock from downed powerlines, exposures to toxic household and industrial chemicals and increased waterborne disease like typhoid fever and cholera. Wildfires lead to death, burns and other injuries; smoke, soot and dust from fires trigger allergies, asthma, and worsen COPD and other respiratory and cardiovascular conditions — especially in the children and the elderly; these are the two groups, along with pregnant women and the disabled, who are most affected by climate change. Extreme climate events like wildfires and rising atmospheric temperatures may be causing an increase in dementia in the elderly and cancer in children.

Then there are the many indirect effects of climate change: both flooding, and drought can ruin crops, which can lead to malnutrition, obesity — from reliance on fast food — and poor oral health (cavities and gum disease). Loss of arable land can lead to crowding, increased crime, loss of economic opportunity and the need to move.

Millions of people are now climate refugees. They are forced to migrate, either internally or to other countries with all the health and safety risks that entails, including loss of preventative health care. Experts say that climate change is a major reason that immigrants make the dangerous journey to this USA. Addressing global warming will help secure our borders.

Finally, climate catastrophe has had a direct and significant effect on the mental health of people around the world. Twenty percent of the people exposed to extreme weather events get PTSD; 80% of them may develop depression. Loss of homes and forced migration leads to a loss of community, and sometimes hostility (as non-citizen climate refugees face here). Rates of aggression and suicide rise.

A new form of mental illness — “climate” or “eco-anxiety” — has become prevalent, especially in children and adolescents. Young people with this disorder have low mood, sleep problems, panic attacks, and are prone to anger, guilt and helplessness. Fortunately, counselors trained in “eco-therapy” are now more common.

But as a start, Americans must stop acting like the masses in the film Don’t Look Up, who are convinced simply not to look at the asteroid about to destroy Earth. Climate change is very real and getting worse; we can’t make it go away by saying it doesn’t exist. And if our Mother Earth becomes unlivable, Elon Musk — like tech giant Peter Isherwill in the film — will take only a very select few on his rocket ship to another planet.

Dr. David Gottsegen is a pediatrician who focuses on the interrelationship between mind body and spirit. He lives in Belchertown.