The weekend’s events on climate change
Sarah Walpole, a medical student from Leeds, UK, updates us on some of the weekend’s student events on climate change which took place on both sides of the Atlantic -Rhona
Photo courtesy of Oxfam
On Saturday, America and the UK were both host to conferences discussing students’ role in tackling global health challenges. The inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) took place over three days at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana where rebuilding work following hurricane Katrina is still going on. The conference sessions have also been available to access online since the start of the conference on Saturday, including the plenary session with Bill Clinton and Lance Armstrong and others.
CGI U is a project which encourages students to take action to tackle global problems, by making a commitment to personal or group action, and President Clinton opened and closed the conference, saying that young people can help to provide innovative solutions. The CGI U website offers suggestions of actions in the areas of global health, energy & climate change, human rights & peace, and poverty alleviation. The conference highlighted examples of initiatives that students have developed, and held working groups on topics from peace building to educating global youth to tackling climate change.
Meanwhile, at the Royal Preston Hospital, UK was host to the inaugral conference of Medsin Preston, a new branch of Medsin-UK. Medsin-UK also aims to tackle global health problems and provide global health solutions.
Medsin’s conference focused on Climate Change and Health, and plenary sessions by climatologist Dr Andy Morse and Tim O’Dempsey of The Liverpool Tropical School of Medicine informed students about the scale of the problem and impacts on disease patterns. The chair of the Climate and Health Council, Dr Robin Stott, gave a talk about taking action to address these problems and the role of health professionals. Dr Stott encouraged students to sign up to the Climate and Health Council declaration calling for tighter emissions reduction targets, and to take personal action to inform ourselves and others.
Medsin runs a campaign called Healthy Planet which broadly aims to advocate and act for more environmental practices, to have both direct and indirect health benefits. At workshops during the day, members of Medsin Preston learnt more about the campaign and explored plans to start a campaign raising awareness amongst students and doctors, meeting with the hospital trust to discuss environmental performance and instituting recycling in their teaching buildings.
This Wednesday (19th March) there is another opportunity to be involved in a conference about issues of the environment and health. At the web-conference organised by the Climate and Health council, “Health and Sustainability: exploring the future of healthcare in the face of climate change and energy vulnerability“, speakers will talk about the challenges climate change and peak oil present for the future maintenance of health and the provision of healthcare. Dr Robin Stott will again be present, looking at action that can be taken at a national and local level. For more information, and to participate, please go here Sarah Walpole: argotomunky@yahoo.co.uk
March 17th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
This past week was a busy time for med students engaged in environmental justice work around the world!
Here in the US, the American Medical Student Association held a full day of programming around the topic as part of its Annual Convention, held in Houston, TX.
Read on to hear some of the highlights.
The event was coordinated by the
Medical Alliance to Stop Global Warming
(for more information on this group, please contact Liza Goldman Huertas leg32@omega.med.yale.edu)
**Voices from the Grassroots: Working for Health and Environmental Justice**
————————————————————
AMSA’s first Environmental Health Institute
co-sponsored by Teleosis Institute
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Med students learned how to:
*respond to health consequences of climate change and fight global warming*
*promote healthy urban planning and sustainable food*
*help make workplaces safe*
*promote well-being of low-income communities and communities of color*
*address toxic threats to child development*
*prevent cancer*
*use the knowledge and voice of the medical community to support
social justice*
*green our healthcare*
… and much more!
The keynote speakers included Jill Stein, MD, Jerome Ringo. Juan Parras.
Jill Stein is a physician and health advocate who is nationally known for her work to protect children from toxic exposures. Dr. Stein was a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002. Jerome Ringo has been called “the most interesting environmental leader in the United
States right now,” by The Nation magazine, and he is among Ebony magazine’s most influential African-Americans of 2006.
Juan Parras, founder of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy
Services (TEJAS) will take us on an Environmental Justice tour of Houston! TEJAS focuses on environmental issues in the Houston Ship Channel neighborhood, a predominantly Latino and low-income community. To learn more about Juan Parras, go to http://www.cleanhouston.org/heros/parras.htm.
The day ended with action plans: for a medical student
environmental health leadership initiative, for AMSA, for our schools and hospitals, and for our profession.