Source: ama-assn.org
Words are important and should reflect the urgency of a situation. Therefore, the phenomenon of climate change is better understood as a climate crisis. And it’s not just another “issue,” but rather an emergency, says AMA member Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH.
“Solving the global climate crisis could be the greatest opportunity of our time,” said Dr. Patz, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Global Health Institute, during a grand-rounds program at the AMA headquarters in Chicago. He added that three ways to attack global warming—reducing air pollution, eating less meat and driving less—all have tremendous health benefits.
“This is the largest environmental public health threat we face,” said Dr. Patz. “That’s why I dedicated my career to this.”
For a decade and a half, Dr. Patz served as a lead author for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC)—the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
AMA policy on global climate change and human health backs the IPCC’s findings and “supports
educating the medical community on the potential adverse public health effects of global climate change and incorporating the health implications of climate change into the spectrum of medical education, including topics such as population displacement, heat waves and drought, flooding, infectious and vector-borne diseases, and potable water supplies.”
Early Warnings Given, Criticized
Dr. Patz, in 1994, convened the first-ever session on climate change for the American Public Health Association and was the lead author of “Global Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases,” published by JAMA in 1996.
The report was immediately met by skeptics who disputed his analysis on the link between climate change and certain health ailments. One respondent even cited a paper entitled “Why Global Warming Would Be Good for You” as a reference.
For today’s skeptics, Dr. Patz argues that the strategies for fighting climate change also work for improving health.
“Regardless of one’s views on climate change science—even for deniers—all of us can support clean air from low-carbon energy,” said Dr. Patz, who is board certified in occupational and environmental medicine, and family medicine. “Climate change is a health issue, and a low-carbon society offers enormous health opportunities.”
He cited research showing that investing $30 in the technology needed to reduce one ton of carbon dioxide emissions produces $200 in health cost savings.
Read the full article here: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/why-physicians-see-climate-change-health-emergency
