Q & A with Healthy Climate Wisconsin’s Bruce Krawisz, MD

Laura: Where did you grow up and where do you live now?

Bruce: I grew up in a suburb of Chicago called Lombard, and now I live in Marshfield, Wisconsin.

Laura: Could you tell me a little bit about the kind of work that you did before you retired?

Bruce: I was mostly an anatomic or surgical pathologist and that involved making diagnoses using a microscope. Mostly, what I did was diagnose tumors, and then a smaller part of my job was in genetics. I was a laboratory director for a genetics laboratory called Prevention Genetics. I was a pathologist for 32 years.

Laura: Why did you choose pathology as your specialty?

Bruce: I really liked and thought it was fun to look under the microscope and understand what diseases looked like. A lot of diseases have a unique combination of features under the microscope. A lot of times you can look at a slide from a person and not know a single thing about that person but know exactly what disease they have.

Laura: What would you do on your perfect weekend in Wisconsin?

Bruce: I like to golf. I would probably do that, and I like hiking quite a bit and would probably do that. I don't often get a chance because I'm busy, but I do rather like watching movies too. Apocalypse Now is my favorite movie.

Laura: What brought you to Healthy Climate Wisconsin?

Bruce: In 2014, there was the first report of the Lancet Commission, and it started out with a sentence that said something like climate change will be the biggest problem of this century, and so I decided when I retired in 2016 that I would do what I could on climate change. In the process, I discovered organizations that I could participate in.

Laura: If you could broadcast something to every Wisconsinite about health and climate what would you say? 

Bruce: I would probably say that Moby Dick is the story of our time. In Moby Dick, the people in the story act in a very violent way toward nature and the repercussion is even more violent than they were prepared for. That's how I see climate change. It's like we are in a whale boat, and Moby Dick is underneath us, and we're not ready for it.

Laura: What brings you hope?

Bruce: There has been progress. Most people are aware of climate change. There has been success with electric vehicles, solar power and wind power, and many schools are teaching children about climate change. I think there will be great suffering. We will miss the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark and may even pass the 2 degrees Celsius mark, but we can continue to reduce climate emissions while these sad events are happening.