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The health-care sector's role in climate stabilisation

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 396; Issue: 10244 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30808-4

1474-547X

Till Johannes Bugaj, Anna Cranz, Christoph Nikendei,

Climate Change and Geoengineering

Nick Watts and colleagues' 2019 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change1Watts N Amann M Arnell N et al.The 2019 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climate.Lancet. 2019; 394: 1836-1878Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (442) Google Scholar leaves no doubt that global warming will heavily affect every child born today. Young people—the generation that will have to live through the consequences of a warming world for the longest—are actively taking part in raising awareness for climate change. Inspired by the Fridays for Future movement, thousands of young people have been doing everything possible to bring about social change towards a sustainable ecological lifestyle. As Rockström and colleagues2Rockström J Gaffney O Rogelj J Meinshausen M Nakicenovic N Schellnhuber HJ A roadmap for rapid decarbonization.Science. 2017; 355: 1269-1271Crossref PubMed Scopus (509) Google Scholar suggested, time is running out, and climate stabilisation should become established in global governance alongside economic development, human rights, democracy, and peace. We believe that as doctors and medical educators, not only are we well placed to inform the public about the consequences of climate change, but we also have an obligation to do so. At the Heidelberg Medical Faculty, we assessed individual and professional responsibility, as well as awareness for the consequences of climate change (unpublished). We found that of 65 medical students in their final year who recognised these consequences and their individual responsibility as global inhabitants, most were unaware that the medical profession bears a responsibility of being an ecological advocate and role model in the face of the threat to global health posed by climate change. This absence of awareness is why addressing climate change in the medical curriculum is so crucial, and long overdue. We declare no competing interests. The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climateThe Lancet Countdown is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration, dedicated to monitoring the evolving health profile of climate change, and providing an independent assessment of the delivery of commitments made by governments worldwide under the Paris Agreement. Full-Text PDF The health-care sector's role in climate stabilisationThe health-care sector is increasingly recognised as a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. We thus welcome the 2019 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change, in which Nick Watts and colleagues1 provide a new global comparison of greenhouse gas emissions from health care (indicator 3.6). Full-Text PDF The health-care sector's role in climate stabilisation – Authors' replyWe thank Till Bugaj and colleagues and Helga Weisz and colleagues for their comments. Full-Text PDF