Sarah Walpole discusses what the medical community can do and also interviews the right honourable Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Climate change is, and will increasingly be, the cause of major and widespread health problems. These include trauma following natural disasters, malnutrition where crop yields are reduced, and infection due to the spread of diseases and disease vectors.

Scientists have found that there is a “tipping point” at which major destabilisation will occur, with catastrophic effects, such as major natural disasters. To avoid reaching the tipping point and prevent the major health consequences, global emissions must peak and begin to fall by 2015 (1) which is no easy target. (more…)

  Professor Hugh Montgomery is an intensive care consultant at University College Hospital London and directs the Institute of Human Health and Performance at University College London, but the way he sees it, the biggest threat to health is something that won’t be touched by these medical endeavours as Sarah Walpole finds out

This year, Professor Hugh Montgomery will be giving the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, which are about the body and the physiology of survival. “It’s theatre as much as lecturing”, and Hugh says that it may well be “the most difficult thing [he’s] done”.

It’s not Hugh’s first delve into the world of entertainment though, as a film that he wrote is currently being produced for Hollywood. When given the opportunity to write a piece for the big screen, Hugh wrote this medical thriller, “Reputation and Control”, in six weeks. He has also written two novels for families (”The Voyage of the Arctic Term” and “Cloudsailors“). His latest is ‘The Genie in the Bottle- about which more later. (more…)

Sarah Walpole interviews Alex Rosen for his organisation’s views on climate change

Alex Rosen

Alex Rosen is a Paediatrician working in Germany, and a member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), an organisation which is committed to bringing a public health perspective to the debate surrounding nuclear war. IPPNW recognises the detrimental health effects of nuclear war, and is committed to preventing nuclear war and abolishing nuclear weapons.

Dr Rosen explains that IPPNW sees resource use and climate change as root causes of conflict, and argues strongly that doctors have an important role in addressing environmental issues to protect health.

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