Climate change is negatively impacting human health and exacerbating existing health inequities. Young doctors are concerned about this issue because climate and the environment are fundamentally interconnected with human health and well-being. The effects of climate change like increasing natural disasters disproportionately impact the most vulnerable populations. Addressing the social and environmental determinants of health is crucial to improving health outcomes and achieving health equity.
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Climate Change - Why young doctors are bothered too
1. Climate Change -
Why we young doctors are bothered too?
Ramon Lorenzo Luis Rosa Guinto, MD
Liaison Officer to the World Health Organization
Founding Coordinator, Global Health Equity Initiative
International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA)
Youth Commissioner, Lancet-University of Oslo
Commission on Global Governance for Health
2.
3. Human health and the environment
are by design interconnected and
inseparable.
4. The Constitution of WHO, 1948
“Health is a state of complete physical,
mental, and social well-being and not
merely the absence of disease or
infirmity… a fundamental human right”
5. Whoever would study medicine aright
must learn of the following subjects.
First he must consider the effect of the
seasons of the year and the differences
between them. Secondly he must study
the warm and the cold winds, both
those which are in common to every
country and those peculiar to a
particular locality. Lastly, the effect of
water on health must not be forgotten.
On Air, Water, and Places
By Hippocrates
Father of Medicine
6.
7.
8.
9. The Philippine Situation
No. 6 in the Climate
Change
Vulnerability Index
No. 3 most
vulnerable to
disaster risks and
natural hazards in
the World Risk
Index 2011, next
to Vanuatu and
Tonga
13. "Medicine… has the
obligation to point out
problems and to attempt
their theoretical
solution…The physicians
are the natural attorneys
of the poor…”
Dr. Rudolf Virchow
Father of Social Medicine
15. Life expectancy at birth (men)
Glasgow, Scotland (deprived suburb) 54
India 61
Philippines 65
Korea 65
Lithuania 66
Poland 71
Mexico 72
Cuba 75
US 75
UK 76
Glasgow, Scotland (affluent suburb) 82
(WHO World Health Report 2006; Hanlon,P.,Walsh,D. & Whyte,B.,2006)
16.
17. “Unequal distribution of
health-damaging
experiences is not in any
sense a ‘natural'
phenomenon, but is a result
of the toxic combination of
poor social policies and
programs, unfair economic
arrangements and bad
politics.”
WHO Commission on Social
Determinants of Health, 2008
18. Basic question:
What good does it do to treat people’s illnesses …
only to send them back to the
conditions that made them sick?
27. Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, 1948
Article 25
“Everyone has the right to a
standard of living adequate for the
health and well-being of himself
and of his family, including food,
clothing, housing and medical care
and necessary social services, and
the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond
his control.”
28. "Health is not
everything, but without
health everything is
nothing."
Arthur Schopenhauer
German Philosopher
I had a previous conversation – why health in climate negotiations?
Human health and the environment are by design interconnected and inseparable.
Even Hippocrates taught us to understand the environment as it shapes our patients’ health.
The Lancet called climate change the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.
There is a huge evidence showing the links between climate change and health.
My country, the Philippines, is not exempted from climate change’s impact on human health and survival.
Flooding inside my university
Manila turned into a waterworld – even at this moment!
Approximately 20 typhoons hit the Philippines each year. Due to climate change, typhoons have become more frequent, more severe, more erratic, and more unpredictable.
Because we see the effects of climate change first-hand in our patients’ lives, and we are the last to bear its brunt.
But the cure is not inside the clinic or the hospital – it is in the social determinants of health.
SDH accounts for the world’s health inequities, both between and within countries.
Climate change will breed more health inequity, as the effects are not the same in all regions. In fact, the developing world will suffer more the health consequences.
Though climate change is an upstream determinant of health, climate change in itself is affected by more upstream ones, the highest being the unfair arrangements in economy and politics.
So we want to address the SDH – and climate change and climate governance is one of them!
We want a Health in All Policies approach at global and national levels. We can use the health lens to analyze the policies we create, especially those related to climate mitigation and adaptation.
But we are not just waiting for action outside the health sector – we medical students are also doing our part!
We build awareness among fellow medical students.
We educate communities about the effects of climate change on human health.
We train medical students in disaster management and health systems.
We reach out to communities stricken by disaster.
IFMSA attended Copenhagen, Cancun, Durban, and now Doha. We are leading the climate and health community and we work closely with WHO.
We are even present in Rio plus 20 to let the health message surface in the negotiations.
Finally, climate inaction is a violation of the right to health and human rights in general.
Health is important in society. We should talk about it and make sure it is at the core of every climate discussion, because without it, everything will just be made in vain.
The ultimate and the most crippling of all diseases is not global warming, but global whining. Therefore, we should start acting now.