The medical profession, aware of the role we play in society, has promoted a Medical Alliance Against Climate Change to lead and take a giant step in the commitment of the General Council of Physicians with the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.
The health sector as a whole, according to endorsed studies, would be the fifth country with the greatest climatic aggressionand within the sector, only the pharmaceutical industry it releases more greenhouse gases (GHG) into the environment than the automotive industry. This panorama makes it essential that from the professions we act to promote actions and initiatives that reverse this enormous impact of health that paradoxically harms the health of the entire planet.
This current photograph of the climatic emergency makes it necessary to create a vulnerability map of effects on health from climate change, design a clear roadmap in coordination with international organizations and raise awareness among the population so that this awareness takes root in every citizen of the world. And it is at this point that corporations play a fundamental role in which the medical profession should, can and wants to be.
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“More than 75 million children under the age of five have symptoms of stunted growth” |
But we cannot do it alone, it is absolutely essential that governments support themselves in medical organizations to face the multiple interrelationships between health and climate change and it is done from a One Health. Only through a transversal and interdisciplinary work in caring for the health of people, animals and the environment, it will be possible to develop and implement programs, policies and laws for the improvement of public health.
act once morest the climate change it is also being supportive and fighting for social justice, values that are in the DNA of the profession. The effects of the increase in temperature, of the increasingly frequent DANAS or droughts are terrible for the population with fewer resources and for the most vulnerable people. So at least 155 million peoplemore than three times as many as live in Spain, were pushed into acute food insecurity in 2020 due to extreme weather conditions, as well as conflict and economic crises, according to the World Food Program (WFP).
Among those who suffer from it there are more than 75 million children under the age of five showing symptoms of growth retardation. We need to be aware that extreme weather events will continue to exacerbate acute food insecurity in fragile economies.
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“The medical profession is committed to transforming healthcare into a greener and more sustainable space” |
Another example is the heat waves that each year cause the death of more people. According The Lancet, over the last 20 years there has been a 53-7 percent increase in heat-related mortality in people over the age of 65. Worldwide, this phenomenon caused the premature death of 296,000 people in 2018 aloneenough to fill all the seats at the Camp Nou three times.
These are just two examples of the consequences of climate change on physical health, but the threat of climate change is a emotional and psychological stressorand the data that is handled warn that people with psychiatric disorders are likely to be disproportionately affected by the consequences of climate change.
Faced with this reality that we might continue to reflect in an infinite text, no one can be left out, that is why from the medical profession we are going to prescribe the fight once morest climate change in each of our acts. A prescription in the form of information, initiatives, outreach campaigns and training activities that contribute to improving the health of the planet, which, ultimately, is everyone’s.
As the UN Secretary General asserts, “if we do not urgently change our way of life, we endanger life itself”. For this reason, from the medical profession we have committed ourselves to this mission that has no other objective than transform healthcare into a greener and more sustainable space that responds to medical professionalism and its ethical and deontological commitment and ultimately, to the care of all.