What health services could do about climate change

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7554.1343

BMJ 2006;332:1343-1344 (10 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7554.1343

Editorial

What health services could do about climate change

They must embrace sustainable development and reduce their ecologicalfootprints

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Advocates for action on climate change face two main challenges.The first is to make everyone aware of the enormity of the problem.The second is to persuade anyone that anything can be done aboutit. Ignorance is bad enough, but inertia—induced by despair,denial, or the hope of a miraculous technical fix—is evenmore dangerous.

Climate change, as Robin Stott argues in this week's BMJ,¹ posesgrave risks to health.² It threatens the essentials of life.It brings drought, floods, storms, and extremes of heat andcold that can lead to famine, homelessness, dislocation, destructionof communities, the spread of disease, and even mass migrationsand armed conflict as people vie with each other for land, water,food, and energy. And let's not forget the effects on mentalhealth of anxiety, insecurity, and a sense of powerlessnessas we watch the grass wither and the ice-caps melt.

. . . [Full text of this article]

Anna Coote, lead commissioner for health

Sustainable Development Commission, Ergon House, London SW1P 2AL
(anna.coote@hotmail.co.uk)

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