{"id":34584,"date":"2015-07-01T11:34:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T10:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=34584"},"modified":"2015-07-01T11:34:02","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T10:34:02","slug":"michael-wilks-climate-change-action-at-a-national-and-global-level-is-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2015\/07\/01\/michael-wilks-climate-change-action-at-a-national-and-global-level-is-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Wilks: Climate change\u2014action at a national and global level is essential"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change<\/a> was published on 23 June. A previous commission<\/a>, established jointly by The Lancet<\/em> and University College London, described climate change as \u201cthe biggest global health threat of the 21st century.\u201d While the 2015 report recommends practical steps to be taken by national and international administrations, it also brings into sharper focus two components that cannot be ignored if a sustainable global solution is to be found to a so-far intractable global problem.<\/p>\n

The first is the increasing evidence that a reduction in greenhouse gases leads to health benefits, and therefore a reduction in healthcare costs. These co-benefits include reductions in respiratory illness, road accidents, obesity, and stroke. The 2015 commission therefore moves from the familiar reiteration of the damage to health from global warming to framing a solution. It boldly states that “tackling climate change could be the greatest global opportunity of the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secondly, a new emphasis is given to the connection between climate change and poverty. The poorest, the elderly, young children, and those with disability are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. These impacts are unevenly distributed, with greater risks in less developed countries. It therefore follows that a growth in affordable renewable energy will bring huge benefits to the economically disadvantaged. The Commission draws attention to the reduction in fuel poverty that such increased energy efficiency delivers, since low-income families have to spend a larger proportion of their income to heat or cool their homes.<\/p>\n

Countries with the highest growth in population are more exposed to the ravages of climate change. This brings us to another recent publication\u2014Pope Frances\u2019 Encyclical Letter <\/a>\u201cLaudato Si.\u201d While the letter asks Catholics to \u201clook for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity,\u201d it relies heavily on science to make its case. Health problems caused by atmospheric pollutants, the acidification of soil and water, fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides are all cited, as are the \u201chundreds of millions of tons of waste\u201d from homes, businesses, construction sites, and from clinical, electronic and industrial sources. The earth, says the Pope, \u201cis beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth\u201d. He identifies rises in sea level, extreme weather events and the destruction of ecosystems and reduced biodiversity as major consequences.<\/p>\n

While the Lancet Commission identifies the poorest in society as especially vulnerable, this economic vulnerability is expressed in the Encyclical as resulting from \u201ctheir means of subsistence (being) largely dependent on natural reserves and ecosystemic services such as agriculture, fishing and forestry.\u201d The two documents overlap in identifying the potential for technological change to widen the gap between rich and poor. By explicitly raising questions of justice, the Pope calls in aid human rights law, an instrument that to date has received little attention in relation to climate change. Such legislation, which requires countries to provide their citizens with the highest attainable standards of health<\/a>, has great potential in calling to account those countries that fail to act.<\/p>\n

At this point the Pope enters a logical blind alley. For health professionals, the solution to climate change must be securely balanced on the three legs of co-benefits, the social determinants of health<\/a>, and population control. Without all three being brought into play, the tripod tips over. The Pope declares that \u201cwe still have not solved the problem of poverty,\u201d but has to evade and avoid one obvious part of the solution. \u201cInstead of resolving the problems of the poor\u201d he says, \u201csome can only propose a reduction in the birth rate.\u201d He claims, somewhat ineffectually, that \u201cit must .. be recognized that demographic growth is fully compatible with an integral and shared development,\u201d and flatly states that \u201csince everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

However predictable and inevitable the Catholic church\u2019s position is on population control (one that is ignored by the majority of its adherents), Pope Francis is right to make connections between climate change, poverty, and social inequalities. The fact that he is right to do so is demonstrated by the vacuous response of Jeb Bush (\u201cI don\u2019t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or from my pope.\u201d) and a call from right-wing presidential hopefuls to keep religion out of politics, thereby proving that the Republican Party is an irony-free zone.<\/p>\n

We are all understandably disorientated when it comes to seeing our way through the climate change fog. We are encouraged to make small but significant individual changes to our behaviour while watching our governments\u2019 repeated failures to tackle it. While government denial has contributed mightily to a deep sense of drift and helplessness, action at a national and global level is essential if the earth\u2019s temperature is not to be contained. An approach that harnesses our knowledge of health co-benefits, the social determinants of health, and population control can succeed. To date the leadership and vision is sadly absent.<\/p>\n

Michael Wilks<\/strong> is a forensic physician and Treasurer of the Climate and Health Council<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Competing interests<\/strong>: None declared.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change was published on 23 June. A previous commission, established jointly by The Lancet and University College London, described climate change as […]<\/p>\n

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