The Air They Breathe

A Pediatrician on the Frontlines of Climate Change

By: Debra Hendrickson

Narrated by: Megan Tusing

A timely, revelatory first look into the impact climate change has on children—the greatest moral crisis humanity faces today—by a pediatrician in the fastest warming city in America.

Wildfires, hurricanes, and heat waves make headlines. But what is happening in Debra Hendrickson’s clinic tells another story of this strange and unsettling time. Hendrickson is a pediatrician in Reno, Nevada—the fastest warming city in the United States, where ash falls like snow during summer wildfires. In The Air They Breathe, Dr. Hendrickson recounts patients she’s seen who were harmed by worsening smoke, smog, and pollen; two boys in Arizona, stricken by record-setting heat while hiking; children who fled for their lives from Hurricane Harvey and the Tubbs Fire; and a little girl whose life was forever altered by the Zika virus outbreak in 2016.

The climate crisis is a health crisis, and it is a health crisis, first and foremost, for children. Children’s bodies are interwoven with and shaped by their surroundings. As the planet warms and their environment changes, children’s health is at risk. The youngest are especially vulnerable because their brain, lungs, and other organs are forming and growing every day, and because their physiology is so different from that of adults. Childhood has always been a risky period of life; throughout history, babies and children have met peril, from polio to famine, from cyclones to war. Yet they have never quite had to face, in quite this way, the potential loss of the future itself.

The Air They Breathe is not just about the health impacts of global warming, but something more: a soul-stirring reminder of our moral responsibility to our children, and their profound connections to this unique and irreplaceable world.

Informative and hopeful

She used facts and personal storytelling to hit home how imparitive it is that we all act in order to protect children and future generations!

Climate Crisis with a hopeful message

This is a great book describing the current climate crisis we live in and how it impacts children's health and future. I am a pediatrician in Las Vegas and this opened my eyes to be more aware of the impact the climate change is having on the patients I care for. I'm glad Dr. Hendrickson ended the book on a note of hope with realistic and helpful actions individuals can (and must) take to make a difference.
Megan Tusing is a great narrator bringing Dr. Hendrickson's patient stories to life.