Vector Issue 12 - 2011

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www.ghn.amsa.org.au 28 7 MDG Millennium development goal (MDG) seven is to ensure environmental sustainability 1 . To help us understand how this is defined, the goal is broken down into several ‘targets’. The targets pertain to things like optimising the percentage of land area covered by forest, protecting biodiversity, improving the efficiency of energy use, reducing per capita CO 2 emissions and consumption of ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons, improving population access to clean water and sanitation, and access to adequate housing for the most impoverished. The achievement of these targets would not only improve the health of our ecosystem but also directly improve human health and assist ensure environmental sustainability in the mitigation of climate change. We can assist in making MDG reality by applying these global targets to the local communities in which we participate. Perhaps most appropriately, as future health professionals, we should consider the ways in which we can assist the health sector to acknowledge the ecological footprint of its business, and duly take steps to rectify this blight. ‘‘ ‘‘ scientific consensus that, as a consequence of human vector FEB 2011 our nation has made minimal progress in lifting its ecological game In the ten years since then Australian-PM John Howard was signatory to the United Nations Millennium Declaration in the year 2000, our nation has made minimal progress in lifting its ecological game. This is despite knowing that there is activities, the earth’s climate is warming. During the twentieth century Australia’s average surface air temperature has increased by 0.7 0 C and rainfall has substantially reduced 2 . The rise has been attributed to our reliance on the combustion of fossil fuels for energy generation and transport and the concomitant rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 3 . Disheartingly, we are locked in to a further warming of at least 0.2-1.0 0 C by the year 2100 2 , however much larger rises are likely to be in store if we are unable to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade 2 . In addition to this, extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, heat waves, and floods will become more frequent. In this way climate change will have detrimental impacts on the environment, economy, and public health. Rich countries such as Australia are better placed than many other nations to be able to fund climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Mitigation is essentially primary prevention to contain a rise in surface air temperature through cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, whilst adaptation is a form of secondary prevention to allow us to live with the inevitable changes in weather patterns; tertiary prevention is tantamount to disaster response to the predicted increase in extreme climate events. As in medicine primary prevention, although unpopular, is a much more cost-effective approach than having to deal with a series of emergencies. It is in this context that the Australian healthcare system is gradually adopting a triple-bottom line approach to evaluation, thereby moving away from an arcane system that treated environmental impacts as an ‘externality’ with little mandate or incentive for hospitals, universities and other large institutions to reduce their carbon footprint . By targeting waste, staff and patient transport and utility (water, energy) consumption some such facilities are starting to make moves. Actions are starting to pop up - ride to work days, waste reduction programs - all contributing to the broader tapestry of sustainabilitypromotion. With the knowledge that there is no health, or economy, without the environment many current and future health professionals such as ourselves realise that to concern for population health necessitates taking action to ensure environmental sustainability. Thus to take care of the the environment is not merely a case of “doing the right thing, it is also an opportunity to make cost savings, experience health co-benefits and mitigate some effects of climate change.
PLAY A PART AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE Understand the threats by educating yourself and your colleagues 1about the links between ill health, environmental degradation, and climate change and mitigation strategies such as promotion of active transport and increasing teleconferencing to reduce unnecessary car and plane travel. Campaign for the integration 4 of education on climate change into the medical curriculum at your university. Help to build networks of like-minded people within your university, hospital or community by joining the your local green group, student 2division of Doctors for the Environment Australia (www.dea. org.au) and/or the climate code green project for Australian medical students (www.codegreensite.com). Consider participating in the national gathering for medical students on climate change and other environmental health issues called ‘iDEA’ which will be held in Sydney over the weekend of April 29-May1, 2011. Environ GOING liz o’brein university of notre dame west australian student member for doctors for the environment australia (DEA) Advocate local and national policies to improve health both now and for 3future generations. Educate those in positions of power (e.g. local politicians, hospital administrators, academics) about the health risks of climate change through meetings, articles in public forums such as your medical school paper and suggest ways they can incentivise sustainable practice. 1. United Nations. 2007. Millennium development goal seven: ensure environmental sustainability. United Nations Development programme. Accessed online October 18, 2010 at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/environ.shtml 2. Preston BL, Jones RN. 2006. Climate Change Impacts on Australia and the Benefits of Early Action to Reduce Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions. A consultancy report for the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change. CSIRO. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Accessed online on October 18, 2010 at http://www.csiro.au/resources/pfbg. html 3. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate change 2007: the physical science basis—summary for policy makers. Accessed online October 18, 2010 at: http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/contents.html www.ghn.amsa.org.au vector FEB 2011 29
Page 1 and 2: vector www.ghn.amsa.org.au Issue 12
Page 3 and 4: contents 4 EDITORIAL 5 8 Reflection
Page 5 and 6: arthur cheung university of queensl
Page 7 and 8: to be coordinated, is a poignant in
Page 9 and 10: http://www.good.is/post/which-count
Page 11 and 12: Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty a
Page 13 and 14: the need for interventions to be pr
Page 15 and 16: of women who share in employment in
Page 17 and 18: aWindowintoGlobalHealth vector FEB
Page 19 and 20: It would be simplistic to assume th
Page 21 and 22: Progress to date: MDG5 is the worst
Page 23 and 24: aWindowintoGlobalHealth Goal 3: Emp
Page 25 and 26: Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, a
Page 27: SNAPSHOT 33 million people are curr
Page 31 and 32: key goals 1. Raise the commitment o
Page 33 and 34: several hundred million additional
Page 35 and 36: I recently undertook my medical ele
Page 37 and 38: alexandra f r a i n & l u k e hamil

Vector Issue 12 - 2011

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