Climate change is now a medical emergency that demands an ’emergency response’

The Lancet, one the medical profession’s most widely read journals, is truly alarmed about climate change.

In a report published Monday, the journal’s Commission on Health and Climate Change flatly described the phenomenon as a “medical emergency” that must be addressed with the same urgency that all medical emergencies demand.

“Climate change is a medical emergency,” said commission member Hugh Montgomery. “It thus demands an emergency response, using the technologies available right now.”

The slow-rolling emergency takes on a variety of shapes, from extreme weather to air and water pollution to population displacement, the report argues. In order to fix such far-reaching problems, all of which owe either their existence or their exacerbation to climate change, humanity must deploy a bevy of strategies — mostly political — to stanch the global bleeding.

Prominent among the “available now” solutions is a joint reduction in all nations’ reliance on the use of fossil fuels — especially coal. IB Times (U.K.) summarized the report’s recommendations this way:

Cutting air pollution by reducing transport emissions or coal-fired power stations in the EU alone could save €38bn (£27bn) a year by 2050 due to reduced deaths, the report said.

It calls for major policy changes to cut pollution and investing in green cities, energy and transport.

Carbon pricing to push up the price of high carbon goods and services to make people change their behaviour and cutting the price of low-carbon technology have also been suggested.

… The Lancet report cites research estimating that reducing carbon emissions would cut premature deaths from air pollution by 500,000 a year in 2030, 1.3 million in 2050 and 2.2 million in 2100, particularly in the heavily polluted cities of India and China.

Boosts to human health can be worth 10 times the costs of cutting emissions.

An estimated $1tn (£630bn) would be needed each year up to 2050 to tackle climate emissions from energy, on top of the $105tn (£66tn) which would be required anyway for the energy system up to mid-century.

… The report sees political will as the major barrier to delivering a low-carbon economy, not finance or technology.

Because the effects of climate change are so pervasive, the solution to almost any major public health issue can be seen in terms of curbing the phenomenon.

“… [I]ndirect impacts come from changes in infectious disease patterns, air pollution, food insecurity and malnutrition, displacement and conflicts,” explained Fox News.

“… Burning fewer fossil fuels reduces respiratory diseases, for example, and getting people walking and cycling more cuts pollution, road accidents and rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.”

View the Lancet’s full report here … if you don’t mind signing up for a free registration.

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