Fighting global climate change in the name of public health

Evidence of the collaborative efforts between climate change and health care advocates just got stronger. Yesterday, health care organizations across the nation, including 1Sky partner Health Care Without Harm, placed a full page ad in yesterday’s issue of the New York Times (.pdf -- image below) calling on President Obama to deliver a ‘prescription for a healthy planet’ in the upcoming Copenhagen negotiations and subsequent talks. These health industry groups announced their prescriptions for effective climate change negotiations and explained how protecting the climate is imperative to maintaining public health.

As proof of the interconnectedness between climate change, health care and the economy, public health, they say, depends on a number of factors relating to the state of the climate. Several major scientific studies, including some by the American Public Health Association, have stated that climate change will lead to increases in global illnesses and deaths. Contributing factors include intense heat, floods and other extreme weather events, the deterioration of air quality, increased transmission of infectious diseases, and malnutrition from the compromising of agricultural production, to name a few.

Josh Karliner, international coordinator for Health Care Without Harm, said,

The public health effects of climate change could be catastrophic, both here in the U.S. and around the world…We are urging President Obama and his administration to provide global leadership to protect public health at the climate talks in Copenhagen and beyond.

The ‘prescription for a healthy planet’ that these health care groups are calling for include four “remedies”:

1. Protect Public Health: Health concerns must be central to the climate treaty.
2. Reduce Emissions: The Copenhagen accord must set strong targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions well below 1990 levels.
3. Promote Clean Energy: The treaty needs to foster energy efficiency as well as clean, renewable energy which improves public health by reducing both local and global pollution.
4. Finance Global Action: World leaders should mandate international funding so that developing countries can address the climate crisis.

As well as calling on President Obama and the rest of the world leaders to put climate change at the vanguard of global climate negotiations, the health care industry is working to increase its own energy efficiency, since health care is the second most energy-intensive building sector in the United States, according to the Department of Energy. Increasing energy efficiency within the health care industry would help curb global carbon emissions and allow service providers to give the public better care, but this will only be possible if Obama takes the strongest stance possible during the conference in Copenhagen this December.