Action on climate change is good for our health, good for our wealth, and good for our environment—our life-support system. We are all complicit in the degradation on our once-reliable, stable climate. The climate science is clear. The economic arguments are clear. And the health message is clear: we can all do things that impact—for […]
Category: Climate change
Nell Crowden: What’s bad for the climate is bad for health
“Perverting the course of evidence-based policy on climate change adaptation and mitigation damages our health resilience, our economic prosperity, and our environmental stability.” (Transparency needed on donors to climate sceptic lobby, Guardian, 26.1.12) Recently there was a freedom of information (FOI) hearing at the Information Rights Tribunal into whether to publicly reveal the funders behind Lord […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Disaster preparedness and resiliency
This week I have had the pleasure of attending a workshop in Honolulu with the centre for excellence for disaster management and humanitarian assistance (CoE-DMHA). The CoE is interested in thinking about resiliency and support for relief and rebuilding from a multi-lateral perspective. With its partners from the Oak Ridge and Argonne National Laboratories, the CoE is […]
Robin Stott: How to avoid an 18th COP out
Three separate images from the recent 17th conference of the parties (COP 17) in Durban, where I was as an observer on behalf of the climate and health council, frame my view of how we can rescue the COP process from its terminal decline. We might then have a better chance of rescuing the globe from […]
David Pencheon: Sustainability by stealth – 8 steps to heaven
When I used to teach public health to medical students and other health professionals, I tried to set myself the challenge of helping people learn about populations, prevention, screening, social determinants of health, quality of healthcare, and such things without mentioning the words public health at all. You may know why. A great paper by […]
Maya Tickell-Painter: Where is health being included in the UN climate change negotiations?
Recently, you heard from Johnny Meldrum about why health professionals should care about climate change, and their role in the climate change negotiations. More than ever before, health professionals were present and engaging with the UN climate talks in Durban. During this conference there has been: a health summit, 6 official side events, two health-related […]
Richard Smith: The happiness questionnaire
My son, a chef, is part of a “pop up think tank” of people under 35 working on happiness. They are gathering evidence through a questionnaire, and I thought that some BMJ readers might be interested in both the questions and my answers. You might like to try answering the questions yourself. […]
Johnny Meldrum: The role of health professionals in UN climate change negotiations
As a medical student with the incredible opportunity to represent the voice of health at the UN climate talks in Durban (COP17), the day before my departure I was confronted with the following headline on the front-page of The Guardian: “Rich nations ‘give up’ on new climate treaty until 2020” […]
David Pencheon: What is it about large scale change that makes anaesthetists act?
Change may be the new constant, but it is always important to understand who embraces change most readily, and where. Doctors in general are traditionally conservative, as those outside the profession will be only too happy to confirm. We like to think we pioneer change both via behaviour (witness the change in smoking prevalence amongst […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Climate change, health, and security
On 17 October, I was fortunate to attend a daylong seminar at BMA House on “the health and security perspectives of climate change.” Uniquely, this programme pulled together medical and military professionals along with climatologists, zoologists, and politicians. The morning focused on threats to global climate, health, and security whereas the afternoon sessions focused on […]