The failure of world leaders to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and restore nature is the biggest threat to public health right now. That is what chief editors of 230 medical journals worldwide conclude this Monday in a joint call to do more against climate change and biodiversity loss. Never before have so many medical journals, including The British Medical Journal, The Lancet and the Dutch Journal of Medicine, collaborated in this way internationally.
By drawing attention to the strong relationship between environmental and climate policy on the one hand and public health on the other, the medical journals want to put pressure on governments ahead of the United Nations General Assembly later this month, where climate policy will be a major theme. They also address the participants in the major biodiversity conference in October in the Chinese city of Kunming, and the negotiators at the climate summit in Glasgow in early November.
‘Not activist’
According to Marcel Olde Rikkert, editor-in-chief of the Dutch Journal of Medicine (NTvG), such an appeal fits in with the journal’s tradition. “Many health problems are related to lifestyle, but also to the environment in which people live,” says Olde Rikkert in a telephone conversation. “As early as the foundation of the NTvG in 1856, this was an important incentive for Jacobus Penn, with themes around alcohol, but also, for example, the fact that Amsterdam did not yet have a sewerage system.”
Olde Rikkert therefore does not think the call is activist. “The time has come when we really have to realize that climate affects people’s health. You only have to switch on the TV or you see disasters related to climate change, which kill people and cause serious health damage. If you establish scientifically that a problem is complex and closely related to the context in which people live, then as a physician you have to go further than just saying: I am looking for a new medicine for that or a new therapy. Then you are obliged to ask yourself how you can really go about it properly.”
Barricade on
Olde Rikkert makes a comparison with smoking or obesity. “Even then we want doctors to not just say: stop smoking, eat less. No, complex behavior such as smoking cannot be regulated one-on-one in the doctor-patient relationship, the government must also take measures for this. A doctor with that vision must dare to stand on the barricade.”
According to the article, tackling the climate crisis cannot wait for the end of the corona pandemic. It is remarkable that doctors of all people say that. “Corona remains a major concern of course,” said Olde Rikkert. “But SARS-CoV-2 will remain among us and flare up regularly. The temptation is then great to seize the acute care and say that that is the only fire that needs to be extinguished. But it is not so, especially because of the connection between corona, biodiversity loss and climate change. The drivers of the pandemic, of the zoonosis and its rapid spread, are also the drivers of warming. Think of the transport of people, animals and things around the world or the rise in temperature, which means that sources of infection are spread more quickly.”
Grasshoppers and Mosquitoes
In the article, climate and biodiversity are mentioned in the same breath. According to Olde Rikkert, this is no coincidence from the perspective of healthcare. “First of all, it is about ensuring sufficient good drinking water and good nutrition. Once upon a time, monocultures seemed to be the solution. But that turned out not to be the case. Climate warming is already contributing to reduced food production. Increasing biodiversity leads to stronger ecosystems, increasing the chance that sufficient food and sufficient safe drinking water will be available.
In addition, according to Olde Rikkert, a decrease in biodiversity increases the risk of overgrowth by what he calls “harmful vectors”, which can cause major crises in the health status. He mentions the enormous plagues of locusts in African countries that seem almost unstoppable and the advancing mosquitoes that can spread infectious diseases as examples. “We can produce wonderful vaccines or pills against malaria, but what do they mean if, on the other hand, the spread of mosquitoes becomes easier?”
source https://pledgetimes.com/230-medical-journals-global-warming-is-the-biggest-threat-to-health/
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