Vector Volume 11 Issue 1 - 2017

Yes, we are a large part of the cause. But if
I learned anything over the weekend, it is that
we can also drive the solution. In the words of
Dr Helen Szoke, “the mission that you sign up
to when you become a doctor means that you
have a responsibility to assist humanity climate
change is a big part of that.” There needs to be
a shift of focus from the negative outcomes of
climate change, towards the positive ways we
as doctors, we have an obligation to talk and
act on climate change”.
Photo credit
Mack Lee
Acknowledgements
None
Conflict of Interest
None declared
Correspondence
isobelle.woodruff@amsa.org.au
References
iDEA17 delegates
can address it. We need to stop seeing it as
an issue and start seeing it as a potential for
change and act in the infinite ways the speakers
outlined at iDEA. While it is the biggest threat to
our species and planet, climate change could
also be “the greatest global health opportunity
of the 21st century”.[8]
The evening before the conference
commenced, I was honored to hear from human
rights lawyer Julian Burnside AO QC, who
eloquently stated; “to remain silent is as much
a political act as to speak out”. This simple idea
is as applicable to climate change and human
health as ever; the health impacts of climate
change are direct and indirect, immediate and
long term, both overt and subtle. We must have
a global perspective on the issue, but also the
willingness to act locally to create sustainable
and tangible change to protect the health of our
planet and our people. It is our responsibility as
informed, ethically-minded health professionals
to act now. In the words of Dr Stephen Parnis, ex-
AMA Vice President “prevention and mitigation
is always better than reaction and recovery –
1. Doctors for the Environment Australia. iDEA17 Conference
DEA2017 [Available from: https://www.dea.org.au/
idea2017/.
2. The Lancet. A Commission on climate change. The
Lancet. 2009;373(9676):1659.
3. Inheriting a sustainable world? Atlas on children’s
health and the environment. Geneva: World Health
Organisation, 2017.
4. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations. Food wastage footprint; impacts on natural
resources (summary report). Natural Resources
Management and Environment Department, United
Nations, 2013.
5. Buckley T. IEEFA Update: China Is Now Three Years
Past Coal. IEEFA, 2017 Feburary 28, 2017. Report No.
6. Tan JAMH. Economics: Manufacture renewables to
build energy security. Nature. 2014;513(7517).
7. McMichael AJ. Globalization, Climate Change, and
Human Health. The New England Journal of Medicine.
2013;386:1335-43.
8. Nick Watts et al. Health and climate change:
policy responses to protect public health. The Lancet.
2015;386(10006):1861 - 914.
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