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- Page navigation anchor for RE: Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster.RE: Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster.2021 was a year like no other as the planet experienced an unrelenting series of climate-related disasters. The widespread nature and severity of these disasters, from a deep freeze in Texas that left 4.5 million people without power, to the heat dome that suffocated western Canada and killed 595 British Columbians, to the wildfires in Turkey that destroyed 1700 square kilometers of forest, to the atmospheric river that devastated the BC interior and forced almost 20,000 people to flee their homes, were unignorable reminders of the future disasters we will face if we do not do all that we can to mitigate climate change. The International Panel on Climate Change has indicated that the planet is in a “code red” situation and change must occur now if we are to prevent unthinkable devastation(2). As physicians, we bear a special responsibility to be leaders and role-models in taking action against climate change and changing our lifestyles in ways that embody this responsibility. One such action can be reducing unnecessary air travel. Flight is often cited as a disproportionate cause of climate change, due to the additive effects of fossil fuel consumption with the subsequent greenhouse gas emissions and the water vapour in contrails that help to trap heat near the earth’s surface(3). While the airline industry is making great efforts to reduce the deleterious effects of air travel on the environment, the reality is that they are several years away from widely implementing thes...Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.
References
- Lukoye Atwoli, Abdullah H. Baqui, Thomas Benfield, et al. Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster. CMAJ 2021;193:E1395-E1397.
- UN News. IPCC Report: 'Code red' for human driven global heating, warns UN chief [Internet]. Available from: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1097362 (accessed 2022 February 20)
- DW. To fly or not to fly? The environmental cost of air travel [Internet]. Available from https://www.dw.com/en/to-fly-or-not-to-fly-the-environmental-cost-of-air-travel/a-42090155-0
- Page navigation anchor for RE: If Healthcare Professionals expect fundamental change from governments then they and their societies should fundamentally change as wellRE: If Healthcare Professionals expect fundamental change from governments then they and their societies should fundamentally change as well
Approximately 230 journals were signatories to this recently published editorial in the CMAJ. It serves as a united voice for health care professionals calling on governments to fundamentally change the way ‘our societies and economies are organized’. Towards the end of the editorial there is a call for health care professionals to do ‘all we can to aid the transition’.
The IPCC report has made it clear that there is a ‘code red’ and action is needed within a short timeframe with respect to the climate emergency. We propose that every Faculty of Medicine create a Planetary Health Leadership role, as we have at the University of Ottawa, within the next year as a clear signal to faculty and learners that the climate emergency is not only important, but urgent. Using this position to advocate for longitudinal integration of planetary health into the medical school and resident curricula, integrating sustainable healthcare into QI initiatives, working with medical students on community outreach, serving as a facilitator for an interprofessional approach, and advocating for research specifically in this area are examples of some potential actions.
Accreditation bodies such as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and AFMC need to urgently recognize planetary health as an important educational objective. Every hospital needs to have the reduction of their carbon footprint as part of their strategic plan. Waiting for another cycle of strat...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.References
- Lukoye Atwoli, Abdullah H. Baqui, Thomas Benfield, et al. Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster. CMAJ 2021;193:E1395-E1397.
- https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/ - link to IPCC report (6th assessment)
- Seguin N, Selvam R, Moloo H. Contextually relevant healthcare professional education: Why planetary health is essential in every curriculum now. Journal of Climate Change and Health. Oct 2021 Vol 4.
- Page navigation anchor for RE: Misleading and deceptiveRE: Misleading and deceptive
Your recent editorial argues from a health perspective for emergency climate action. You demand net-zero for the developed world before 2050. Such action will be very expensive.
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To justify such expensive policies, one would expect your editorial to produce strong documentation for negative health impacts from climate change. While you allude to many concerns, you only numerically document two health impacts.
One is an unconvincingly handwaving statement linking a climate-driven decline in yield potential for major crops since 1981 with an unspecified negative impact on malnutrition. Yet, we have actual data, that shows global yields have increased from 1981-2019 in 15 key FAO crops by an average of 51% (with only Sorghum yields declining, 10%, and maize, rice paddy and wheat rising 67%, 65% and 89%, respectively, FAOSTAT). Malnutrition in developing countries has more than halved from 26.5% in 1980 to 12.9% in 2016, and child and maternal malnutrition mortality rate has dropped three-quarters from 136 per 100,000 in 1990 to 38 in 2019 (GBD). It is misleading to state a climate impact on an obscure yield potential measure while hinting at a negative impact on malnutrition, when actual yields have skyrocketed and the actual malnutrition rate and malnutrition death rate have plummeted.
Your other numerical documentation is more seriously deficient. You conclude “no temperature rise is “safe”” by stating that over the past 20 years, global heat-related mortal...Competing Interests: None declared.References
- Lukoye Atwoli, Abdullah H. Baqui, Thomas Benfield, et al. Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster. CMAJ 2021;193:E1395-E1397.
- FAOSTAT database. 2021; Available from: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data
- Global Burden of Disease 2019: http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool
- Watts N, Amann M, Arnell N, Ayeb-Karlsson S, Beagley J, Belesova K, et al. The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: responding to converging crises. The Lancet. 2021 Jan 9;397(10269):129–70.
- Lomborg B. Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 2020;156:119981.
- Page navigation anchor for RE: Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much fasterRE: Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster
This landmark Editorial 1 appears in CMAJ as part of a coordinated global call to action alongside 220 respected health journals worldwide including Lancet, BMJ and NEJM. The initiative consolidates the growing voice of healthcare providers globally, educating on the planetary risks of the escalating environmental crisis of climate change combined with biodiversity loss, while advocating for the massive action emergently needed to secure a livable future for humanity.
The authoritative 2021 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report 2 unequivocally links climate change to human activity. The evidence-based IPCC projections of the devastation if we fail to limit global warming is being called a “code red for humanity” by the United Nations. Climate change is the greatest threat to human health of our lifetimes 3.
Despite this, the Canadian Medical Association's own recent “four pillars” of healthcare policy priorities prepared for the 2021 Canadian Federal Election 4 did not identify environmental health as an actual pillar. A “climate change plan” briefly mentioning adaptation only with no mention of mitigation was relegated to the fine print. Likewise the majority of doctors recently surveyed by the Ontario Medical Association 5 failed to recognize climate health as a priority. We are falling dangerously short of the coordinated call to action .
The pandemic has highlighted our interdependences and deep vulnerabilities. Howev...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.References
- 1) Lukoye Atwoli, Abdullah H. Baqui, Thomas Benfield, et al. Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster. CMAJ 2021;193:E1395-E1397.
- 2) IPCC, 2021: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger,
- 3) Costello, A., Abbas, M., Allen, A., et al. 2009. Managing the health effects of climate change. The Lancet 373: 1693-1733.
- 4) Canadian Medical Association: Federal Election 2021: Reframing Health. https://www.cma.ca/election
- 5) Ontario Medical Association: Health-Care Platform - Virtual Round Table for All Members. June 21, 2021
- Page navigation anchor for RE: Open Access Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect healthRE: Open Access Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health
Thank you for this important call to action. Tonelli, Tang and Forest wrote an article in this journal in 2020 calling for a "Health in all policies" action plan. It's time that we consider a "Climate action in all policies" action plan. I've read with interested the various articles and editorials on climate that have appeared in CMAJ in the past few years. Does the CMAJ have other plans to reduce its climate impact? Can we have Trevor Hancock back?
Competing Interests: Commuting cyclist.References
- Lukoye Atwoli, Abdullah H. Baqui, Thomas Benfield, et al. Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster. CMAJ 2021;193:E1395-E1397.
- Marcello Tonelli, Kwok-Cho Tang and Pierre-Gerlier Forest CMAJ January 20, 2020 192 (3) E61-E67; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.190517
- Page navigation anchor for RE: Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases,RE: Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases,
Dear CMAJ:
I offer Bjorn Lomborg's recent book "False Alarm" as a rebuttal to the contents of this paper.
My own understanding of the climate debate is: climate change is real bur whether such change is outside temporal variability is yet to be determined, and, to what degree is human activity contributing to that change. For a Medical Journal to suggest that the science is 'unequivocal' is to do a disservice to your brand as well as your readers.Phil Miller,
OttawaCompeting Interests: None declared.References
- Lukoye Atwoli, Abdullah H. Baqui, Thomas Benfield, et al. Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health: wealthy nations must do much more, much faster. CMAJ 2021;193:E1395-E1397.