Health professionals taking action on climate change
April 2008
Introduction
There is a growing realisation that climate change is the biggest environmental concern facing the world today. With rising temperatures, changing sea levels, and extreme weather patterns, it presents a major threat to public health. Climate change is expected to have consequences on economic development, food production, access to water, migration patterns and has the potential to affect transmission patterns of communicable diseases. Rapid population growth, increased levels of consumerism and materialistic lifestyles in the developed world and a declining natural resource base are all putting a strain on the planet and are exacerbating and contributing to the effects of climate change.
The scientific community has expressed in no uncertain terms that the Earth’s climate is rapidly approaching a threshold, beyond which there are likely to be major and irreversible changes. Urgent action is needed now at an individual, organisational, political and global level to help prevent unmanageable climate change, to reduce some of these effects and to prepare to deal with a number of health consequences that may follow.
There is a significant volume of research, information and opinion on climate change. The aim of this web resource is to provide an overview of climate change and what it means for the UK. The key purpose is to highlight what practical actions health professionals and health organisations can take to reduce their carbon footprint and to protect and promote the health of the public. This resource includes examples of good practice and links to sources of further information.
Note: that in discussing climate change, future impacts and implications are based on projections of how the climate may change in the future.
|
|
