In Florida, Doctors See Climate Change Hurting Their Most Vulnerable Patients

Every week, Jorge needs to earn $364.08. His handwritten budget is taped to the wall of the windowless shed where he lives in Miami. Inside the tiny space, there's barely enough room for a twin bed and a battered dresser; his kitchen consists of a blender and a microwave. There's no running water, and mosquitoes fly in through the open door.

The little that he earns needs to cover more than just his living expenses — Jorge has diabetes and cancer to manage, and he needs to support his five children back home in Ecuador.

To survive, Jorge, who requested that his last name not be used for this story to protect his health information, sells fruit on the side of the road. "Rain or shine, cold or heat, I still have to work," he says.

Most days, it's the heat he struggles with the most, and in recent years, the city has felt hotter than ever.

"When you work in the streets," Jorge says, "you really feel the change."

And it may only be getting worse. The 2018 National Climate Assessment noted that the southeastern United States is already experiencing "more and longer summer heat waves." By 2050, experts say, rising global temperatures are expected to mean that nearly half the days in the year in Florida will be dangerously hot, when the combination of heat and humidity will make it feel like it's 105 degrees or more.