In a previous posting, I argued that it is important for everyone to have some understanding of climate science—which is why Medact produced a summary and discussion of the latest UN report about the physical science of climate change. I also questioned the scientific understanding of Owen Paterson, minister for environment, food, and rural affairs, […]
Category: Climate change
David McCoy: Why doctors need to take climate change seriously
Owen Paterson is the minister for environment, food, and rural affairs and therefore leads on government policy with regards to global warming. But his reaction to the latest report on the physical science of climate change by the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) raises questions about his fitness to play this vital role. […]
David Pencheon: Climate change—knowing so much and doing so little
Although I like to think I am a rational person who can consider most issues objectively, I know this is rubbish. I am biased, prejudiced, and a prisoner of my experience, although perhaps acknowledging this is better than denying it. Not easy, as the ability to deny is probably our most powerful coping mechanism, and […]
Deon Louw: The doctor, the environmentalist, and the gospel of sustainable healthcare
Let’s be honest. Lester Brown sounds like the name of a musician from the Deep South. In fact, Brown is an acclaimed scientist and I had the pleasure of attending one of his lectures. He has 25 honorary degrees and has published more than 50 books on how human systems (e.g. food systems) react to […]
Rachel Stancliffe and Mahmood Bhutta: Should doctors lead on sustainability?
Welcome to a new series of blogs on sustainable healthcare that will look at health, sustainability and the interplay between the two. The blog will share ideas from experts across the healthcare field, some of whom are speaking at a major European conference looking at Pathways to Sustainable Healthcare in September 2013. More about […]
David Shearman: The climate “tide” is still rising
Time and tide wait for no man published in the BMJ 10 years ago detailed a vital role for the medical profession in addressing climate change and was used in Australia to form Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) in 2001. The article could be reprinted today with updated references as the current report card—except […]
Richard Smith: Non communicable disease and sustainable development
There is a sense that if you are not working at something that helps counter climate change (or climate disruption, as it should be called) then you are wasting your time. You are Nero, and Rome is burning. Those of us who work on non communicable disease (NCD) are “lucky” in that most of what […]
Mike Knapton and Tom Pierce: Doctors should take a leading role in tackling climate change
The recent Cambridge University Leadership Programme looked at sustainable development in health services worldwide. It was an opportunity to hear the evidence and arguments which were both persuasive and alarming. The link between population growth and our reliance on a carbon-based economy, leading to rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, and the consequent changes […]
David Pencheon: Death by consumption—again
Tuberculosis used to be (and sometimes still is) the great scourge, causing death and disease on a global scale and changing the course of human history over millennium. It is often called consumption—partly because the disease seems to “consume” the body. Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. The evidence […]
Sarah Walpole: The NHS sustainability day audit is “a very good place to start”
“The very beginning” has famously been advocated as “a very good place to start,” but when it comes to sustainability, this doesn’t seem to be such an easy mantra to follow. For one thing, it’s not altogether clear where “the very beginning” is, and for a second, we in the NHS are so busy trying […]