An important conference on climate change
Rob Hughes went to a very important conference on climate change yesterday on behalf of The Lancet Student and reports back below. And more on this later as we will be covering more on the conference in this week’s Lancet Student podcast -Rhona
photo courtesy of Oxfam
Climate change- what an crucial issue, and about time the medical profession better engaged in the debates surrounding it. Yesterday’s conference on ‘Climate Change and Health’ at the Royal College of Physicians in London, was a welcome sign of the important shift from the realm of ‘bunny lovers and tree huggers’ into the mainstream.
The morning spent hearing from some of the top scientists tracking the unprecedented changes occurring as a result of increased greenhouse gas emissions was enough to answer any lingering questions from naysayers. Those who continue to challenge the growing consensus about the enormity and immediacy of the threat of climate change were convincingly discredited by the wealth of shocking evidence presented, which appropriately focused on the present and future human impact of climate change. What is increasingly clear is that we will all be affected by climate change, but that perversely those who have produced little of the CO2 - people in developing countries - will be effected first and most severely.
The potential role for health professionals was also emphasised, and hopefully the meeting will act as a catalyst for more visible and coordinated campaigning from doctors and other health professionals on this pressing issue. Not only can we assist in advocacy efforts through bringing the often intangible and complicated details of climate change back to the tangible, personal health outcomes effecting people’s lives, but we can also set a powerful example through the way we live and work.
That there is potential for energy savings in the National health Service (NHS) is clear for all who work within it, and it was encouraging to learn of the initiatives - that we surely must all support - working towards increased sustainability within this massive institution. What is perhaps more of a challenge is making the lifestyle changes necessary to minimise our own personal carbon footprints; (insulating our houses, switching things off and the thermostat down, reducing our meat intake, cutting down on flying and driving… etc etc…) yet as well as highlighting the importance of such personal steps, Prof Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine (LSHTM) reminded us that many of these changes also offer significant co-benefits to our, and our population’s, health, through challenging the increasingly sedentary lives we live.
The challenge that we have created for ourselves in climate change is enormous, and is increasingly clearly a global and a local health issue. That we are all individually and collectively compelled to act is clear, and hopefully yesterday’s meeting can be a milestone for the responses of the medical profession. Rob Hughes
Further Information:
The Lancet Energy and Health Series
http://www.climateandhealth.org/
http://www.climateandhealth.org/