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Offline: Australia leads on climate and health
Comment
Offline: Australia leads on climate and health
Richard Horton
Richard Horton
Richard Horton
For Doctors for Climate Action see doctorsforclimateaction.org
“Now is the moment to make our voices heard.” Professor Nicholas Talley was speaking in Sydney last week at the launch of Doctors for Climate Action, an initiative led by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). Nicholas Talley is not an obvious climate activist. He is an academic gastroenterologist who is currently President of the RACP. He wears a tie (unusual in Australia). The digital campaign he was inaugurating, together with Anthony Capon, a member of The Lancet’s Commission on Planetary Health, followed publication of a global consensus statement endorsed by international health and medical organisations (currently 51, including the American Medical Association). That statement emphasises a doctor’s duty of care to protect and promote the health of patients and their communities. The College also argues that climate change is an issue of health equity. In Australia, this dimension is important. The vulnerability of Indigenous communities is deeply felt by health professionals, and their advocacy for action on climate change is a pre-emptive defence of Indigenous health. The RACP has put itself in the forefront of climate advocacy. Doctors can sign up to the campaign and add their commitment to the negotiations that will take place in Paris in December at COP21. But the launch took place at an inauspicious moment in Australian climate history. Southern Australia has just passed through an unprecedented heatwave that added up to 15°C to average October temperatures. The land has been baked dry. Bushfires burned close to Melbourne. Part of the reason was an unusually large Pacific El Niño, where wind, rain, and surface ocean temperatures all shift to change predicted weather conditions, often dramatically. Again, Australia has special reason to be alarmed. The great coral reefs in Australia’s seas are undergoing a mass bleaching event that could harm over a third of the world’s reefs. If bleaching continues, and the coral subsequently dies, damage to ocean ecosystems will be immense. *
Richard Horton
The good news, possibly, is that Australia has a new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. His predecessor, Tony Abbott, famously described climate science as “crap”. He changed his mind, and committed his government to reducing carbon emissions by 26–28% by 2030. This goal is too little, too late. Turnbull is thought 1520
to be less hostile to climate concerns, although he has no plans to change Abbott’s policy—at least, not yet. But the choices facing the Australian Government are not easy. Their predicament is a good example of the political trade-offs countries may have to make in order to reach agreement in December. The big victory that made headlines last week was not Australia’s serendipitous defeat of England’s rugby team, but final agreement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But the TPP has one glaring gap—China, Australia’s biggest trading partner. The slowdown in China’s economy, combined with its government’s gradual shift away from fossil fuels to address the existential threat posed by climate change, means that demand for Australia’s coal has dropped precipitately, plunging the industry into a short-term crisis. This painful moment for Australia, which largely rode out the 2007–08 global financial crisis, shows not only the astonishing interdependence of countries, but also the need for Australia to rebalance its economy away from raw materials. While these issues are not matters the medical community can easily influence with any expertise, we can help to strengthen the confidence of decision makers to act knowing that there will be measurable health co-benefits for their electorate. That is no small compensation. * Climate action for health was born in Australia. Tony McMichael, an Australian environmental epidemiologist who pioneered studies into the adverse health consequences of climate change, did more than anyone to make climate a medical issue. Stephen Boyden untangled the relationship between environmental destruction and its threat to human civilisation. And Fiona Armstrong, who founded Australia’s Climate and Health Alliance, together with writers such as Tim Flannery (whose latest book, Atmosphere of Hope, is an optimistic call to “win the race for a better future”), are trying to change public sensibilities about climate dangers. Many nations—and health professionals—could do little better than look to Australia’s leadership for inspiration, and achievement. Richard Horton [email protected]
www.thelancet.com Vol 386 October 17, 2015
Offline: Australia leads on climate and health
Richard Horton
Richard Horton
Richard Horton
For Doctors for Climate Action see doctorsforclimateaction.org
“Now is the moment to make our voices heard.” Professor Nicholas Talley was speaking in Sydney last week at the launch of Doctors for Climate Action, an initiative led by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). Nicholas Talley is not an obvious climate activist. He is an academic gastroenterologist who is currently President of the RACP. He wears a tie (unusual in Australia). The digital campaign he was inaugurating, together with Anthony Capon, a member of The Lancet’s Commission on Planetary Health, followed publication of a global consensus statement endorsed by international health and medical organisations (currently 51, including the American Medical Association). That statement emphasises a doctor’s duty of care to protect and promote the health of patients and their communities. The College also argues that climate change is an issue of health equity. In Australia, this dimension is important. The vulnerability of Indigenous communities is deeply felt by health professionals, and their advocacy for action on climate change is a pre-emptive defence of Indigenous health. The RACP has put itself in the forefront of climate advocacy. Doctors can sign up to the campaign and add their commitment to the negotiations that will take place in Paris in December at COP21. But the launch took place at an inauspicious moment in Australian climate history. Southern Australia has just passed through an unprecedented heatwave that added up to 15°C to average October temperatures. The land has been baked dry. Bushfires burned close to Melbourne. Part of the reason was an unusually large Pacific El Niño, where wind, rain, and surface ocean temperatures all shift to change predicted weather conditions, often dramatically. Again, Australia has special reason to be alarmed. The great coral reefs in Australia’s seas are undergoing a mass bleaching event that could harm over a third of the world’s reefs. If bleaching continues, and the coral subsequently dies, damage to ocean ecosystems will be immense. *
Richard Horton
The good news, possibly, is that Australia has a new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. His predecessor, Tony Abbott, famously described climate science as “crap”. He changed his mind, and committed his government to reducing carbon emissions by 26–28% by 2030. This goal is too little, too late. Turnbull is thought 1520
to be less hostile to climate concerns, although he has no plans to change Abbott’s policy—at least, not yet. But the choices facing the Australian Government are not easy. Their predicament is a good example of the political trade-offs countries may have to make in order to reach agreement in December. The big victory that made headlines last week was not Australia’s serendipitous defeat of England’s rugby team, but final agreement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But the TPP has one glaring gap—China, Australia’s biggest trading partner. The slowdown in China’s economy, combined with its government’s gradual shift away from fossil fuels to address the existential threat posed by climate change, means that demand for Australia’s coal has dropped precipitately, plunging the industry into a short-term crisis. This painful moment for Australia, which largely rode out the 2007–08 global financial crisis, shows not only the astonishing interdependence of countries, but also the need for Australia to rebalance its economy away from raw materials. While these issues are not matters the medical community can easily influence with any expertise, we can help to strengthen the confidence of decision makers to act knowing that there will be measurable health co-benefits for their electorate. That is no small compensation. * Climate action for health was born in Australia. Tony McMichael, an Australian environmental epidemiologist who pioneered studies into the adverse health consequences of climate change, did more than anyone to make climate a medical issue. Stephen Boyden untangled the relationship between environmental destruction and its threat to human civilisation. And Fiona Armstrong, who founded Australia’s Climate and Health Alliance, together with writers such as Tim Flannery (whose latest book, Atmosphere of Hope, is an optimistic call to “win the race for a better future”), are trying to change public sensibilities about climate dangers. Many nations—and health professionals—could do little better than look to Australia’s leadership for inspiration, and achievement. Richard Horton [email protected]
www.thelancet.com Vol 386 October 17, 2015