Abstract
Far from being laggards in mitigating climate change, health professionals should be leaders. They have scientific training, which means they are better able than many to understand the science that underpins climate change. They are more trusted than any other group, particularly after the bravery they have shown in countering the pandemic, and they interact with millions of citizens every day. Then the threat to health and the positive benefits to health from a low carbon life is probably the best way for citizens to be motivated to act on climate change. In many countries, health workers outnumber and other groups of employees, and the actions they and their families take as individuals can have a sizeable impact—and they provide leadership by example. Finally, health professionals have global networks, and mitigating climate change demands global action.
Highlights
Both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Lancet have called climate change the world’s major threat to health. (I 1 2) It is a much more serious threat than the Covid-19 pandemic
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an instinctively cautious body, warned in 2018 that we have less than 15 years left to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep global temperature to less than 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, a level that should avoid what the IPCC calls “extreme climate change.” (4)
In order to keep the global temperature below the 1.5°C increase the world has needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 7% a year
Summary
But unsurprisingly, what is good for mitigating climate change is good for human health. (3) The Australians have a phrase “Healthy planet, healthy places, healthy people”: it is difficult if not impossible for people who live in unhealthy places to be healthy. To mitigate climate change we need to drive and fly less which means exercising more, which is good for the health of individuals (transportation accounts for just over a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions). It’s important make clear, that, we will need to change how we live, the most important changes need to be made at a political level. Commitments by governments to reducing carbon emissions that they deliver, and a shift from an economy that pursues growth to one that promotes wellbeing. Individuals alone changing will not be enough to avoid climate catastrophe, and political changes in transport, agriculture, trade, and urban design make it easier for individuals to live healthy lives in which we consume less carbon
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