Introduction by Croakey: Even as large swathes of the United States were experiencing bushfires and extreme weather events, the US presidential debate this week failed to address the climate challenge in any serious depth.
The near-total absence of climate talk in the 2024 presidential election is divorced from the reality that will face the next President, reports Zoë Schlanger in an article in The Atlantic titled, ‘The Next President Will Be a Climate-Disaster President’.
Meanwhile, it seems the new Northern Territory Government has a strategy for its own divorce from reality: abolish the climate portfolio. (ABC also reports that the NT will also no longer have a minister for suicide prevention, treaty, local decision-making, parks and rangers, nor a minister for women or remote housing and homelands.)
All of which highlights the importance and urgency of the issues outlined below by emergency medicine leader, Dr Simon Judkins, who recently presented to the fourth annual event profiling ‘Climate change and sustainability: leadership and action from Australian doctors’, and who advocates strongly for health professionals to engage in climate advocacy and communications.
The National Health and Climate Strategy Implementation Plan, 2024-2028 also highlights the importance of effective communications and engagement with the public, patients and consumers.
“It is critical the Australian community’s understanding of the likely impacts of climate-related hazards on their own health and the health system is improved to ensure they play an active role in their own health and the resilience of the health system,” says the plan.
Simon Judkins writes:
Recently I attended an online meeting where 10 or so medical colleges shared what they and their members had been doing over the past year to tackle the climate crisis.
This is an annual event convened by the Australian Medical Association and Doctors for the Environment Australia as a way of medical organisations coming together to share and compare the work they are doing to see their organisations progressing in decarbonising their own businesses, through disinvestment and other sustainability measures, but also how they are working to progress efforts in decreasing the impact of our hospitals and health systems on the environment.
We listened to examples about how GP practices can save money and environmental impacts through solar investments, and how the continued promotion of the Evolve program by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians leads to better outcomes through evidence-based care, decreasing unnecessary investigations and treatments. We also heard how our anaesthesia colleagues are doing great work in changing the use of anaesthetic gases.
I presented on behalf of my own college, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, about what we have been doing. We are building momentum after the establishment of SEMCAN, the Sustainable Emergency Medicine and Climate and Health Advocacy Network.
This network is working with health departments and hospitals to introduce the GreenED and Sustainable Emergency Medicine programs across Emergency Departments in Australia and New Zealand, which incorporate aspects of the Choosing Wisely programs with which many readers will be familiar. It also addresses procurement and waste management, recycling, education of communities and preparations for a future of climate instability, as examples.
The health and climate advocacy is a larger and, I think, a more vital part of this work, and is where we hope to see bigger impacts.
This involves partnerships with AMA, Doctors for the Environment, the Climate and Health Allilance, the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia, and other organisations to work together to highlight the clear health impacts our communities face now and into the future from our continued use of fossil fuels.
This is through the direct impacts from air pollution causing increased asthma, respiratory illness, stroke and cardiac events, the plastic waste and micro-plastics that pollute our oceans and end up in our blood streams and brain tissues, as well as the devastating environmental changes we are all seeing.
A warming ocean and atmosphere is leading to a clear increase in destructive and deadly climate events, impacts on disease spread, food and water insecurity, all of which cause huge health harms across the globe.
Emergency clinicians are acutely aware of these impacts as we are very aware of what is happening in our communities, are involved in the acute responses and ongoing care and…we care…
In EDs, we care for those who we know are going to be impacted. From the heat-sinks of western Sydney, where temperatures are expected to hit 50C in the not too distant future, to northern NSW, where we have looked after communities devastated by floods, to rural towns where farming families are impacted by droughts, then devastating rains, those with mental health challenges, poor housing, the aged and very young.
We care for these people and we know that their lives will be impacted greatly. Their lives will be changed while those people who are causing the fossil fuel driven climate changes will turn on the air-conditioning and shut their doubled-glazed windows when the heatwaves hit and turn on Sky News to listen to their mates deny that climate change is real, and that fossil fuels are good for your health and wellbeing.
Global conversations, and media silences
This is not just an Australian conversation. We are partnering with doctors and nurses across the globe, from the UK to Canada, New Zealand to the US, Taiwan, Malaysia and our neighbours in the South Pacific.
Across all these networks, we hear the same messages: the clear and obvious effects on the health of their communities in their countries are being largely ignored by governments as they are held captive by big corporations that have the money and power to influence the law-makers and the media ownership to control the narrative.
So, the public messages are skewed with lies, misinformation and distractions.
When I look at our news, whether on TV, social media or newspaper sites, rarely do I see reflected our conversations, our information about the how fossil fuels, plastics, heat and drought.
Instead, I see news reports of the heatwaves and smiling reporters stating, “it’s an early welcome to summer!” and “Sydneysiders hitting the beaches” – acting like this is all a bit odd, a bit humorous, but essentially normal.
The hottest temperatures in many parts of the country, in the hottest year the earth has recorded should raise alarm bells. Should be a dire warning. Should be a wakeup call…
But not in the ‘She’ll be right’ country. Not in a country where much of our media is owned, controlled and manipulated by those with vested interests (money, power and political influence) in maintaining the status quo.
Don’t get me wrong; I love our ‘She’ll be right’ attitude to most things. In fact, that is an ethos that has sat comfortably with me most of my life. Be positive, be humble, support your family and friends, work hard, be honest, be smart and stay informed.….and “she’ll be right” . Things will work out OK in the end.
But this is not a ‘She’ll be right’ situation.
This situation…climate change… increasing CO2, changes to our atmosphere, our environment, our polar regions, our oceans, our mountains, our food supplies and, most importantly, our health and the health of our families and communities, cannot be left to fate or chance to fix.
“She” will not be right…not now, not this year, next year or in 10 years, or ever…Unless we change, and change rapidly.
I, and my colleagues – doctors, nurses, psychologists and others – are very heavily involved in meeting with our politicians, the public, other environmental bodies, discussing the impacts of our changing world and advocating for policy changes, changing our energy supplies to renewable sources, decreasing plastics…the list goes on…because of one concern. Your health.
We have no vested interests. WE have no financial interests or a want for power. We are not employed to do this work. We do it on our time, with our family’s support, because we care about your health.
Of course, we know that the world today would not be where it is without the use of fossil fuels. They helped built economies, countries, roads, hospitals; they have been fundamental in the advancement of the human race. No one can deny that.
It is also undeniable that we have reached a point where the long-predicted impacts of burning fossil fuels – which were recognised decades ago by the same people who were mining and burning the coal and oil – the impacts on the health of our world, are now being realised.
As a country, we’ve known for decades that this was coming and largely paid lip-service to the challenges. We have seemingly not created a back-up plan for the economy of the country. We’ve denied, we’ve deflected and distracted .
We are now seeing the impacts all over the globe. And it will get worse.
So, what about the “other team” – the talking heads we see on Sky or Fox, the journos who write for The Australian, or other Murdoch rags. Do they have a conflict of interest?
Of course they do. They are paid to be controversial, to stir up headlines, to grasp at relevance in a desperate attempt to get ratings, a few “hits” so they can keep their jobs.
And, of course, they work for CEOs and Boards who have huge financial stakes in mining, gas, media and sharemarkets and are all getting richer while the rest of us strain under the rising costs of living brought on by their greed.
So, does anyone really think that these science-denying “reporters” are independent in what they think and what the spout out on TV or in the paper? Of course not. They are mouthpieces for their overlords and the fossil fuel industry.
Look up, and act
The evidence is in…the world is heating up through the burning of fossil-fuels. Our oceans are full of plastics, so is our food, our drinking water and many of our organs. The world’s polar caps are melting, forests are burning, and our food supplies are under significant threat.
We know that we have locked in more devastation through what we are doing right now. We know that our climate will be more unstable, hotter, wetter, more storms and inundation of sea water over land.
But we also know that, if we demand changes, if we make a rapid transition to rid the world of fossil fuels and move to cheap, clean renewable energies, we might be able to lessen the impacts.
So, ultimately, it comes down to you…do you stick your head in the sand ( which will become very, very hot) and pretend your kids futures will be a safe and stable one, or do you look up, understand that the world needs to move, collectively, to a different and new chapter, and be a part of that movement.
You can start today…it’s not as hard as you think it might be.
Small things done by many become very big things. So, eating less red meat and more seasonal vegetables and sourcing your electricity from renewable energy companies.
If you have investments, move them to ethical investment platforms. Drive less, if you can and make you next car a hybrid or EV. Recycle and re-use.
But, most importantly, put pressure on our politicians to change the rules to protect your and your future and our environment. Vote for change.
The groundswell is important…votes are important. Understanding the facts are important.
But what is most important is what you leave behind for your future generations. There is a choice we all have to make…and it’s pretty obvious what that choice should be.
So, to all those who work in health, get involved. Join the DEA, set up a sustainability group in your hospital, develop a plan to decrease your environmental impact, but increase your advocacy impact. Join the webinars online to learn more. Ask your local MP what their position is and, if you don’t like it, ask their opponent. But most of all, DO NOT BE SILENT.
This is a health issue. This is the biggest health issue we face. It is our lane. And it is up to us to do something about it.
Presentation by Assistant Health Minister Ged Kearney
The Minister, who is responsible for the National Health and Climate Strategy, presented to the joint AMA/DEA meeting on recent climate health policy developments and moves towards a more sustainable and climate-resilient health system, saying that climate and health concerns have been close to her heart for many years. (This video was recorded by Croakey.)
