Eco News is a joint project between Greening Bathurst and Bathurst Community Climate Action Network.
Human-induced climate change poses an existential threat to our planet and every organism on it.
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The future of our planet, my children and grandchildren is at risk.
The wilful complicity of our Australian and world leaders in not taking urgent action on climate change borders on the criminal.
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I was a general practitioner in Bathurst for nearly 40 years and my medical training makes three things clear:
1. Believe the science! Critically analyse sources, and data. Trust the accepted experts. As a GP, I could not ignore hundreds of years of accumulated medical knowledge and go with my own gut feelings, or limited experience and knowledge.
And yet that is what our political leaders are doing. It condemns us, and our education system that we let them get away with it.
2. Climate change constitutes a public health crisis that requires urgent action from all levels of government and society as a whole.
The UN secretary-general states that runaway climate change will produce disastrous health consequences for people, and the natural systems that sustain us.
The serious direct and indirect health impacts of climate change include death and illness resulting from heat stress, extreme weather events, dramatically increased refugee numbers, disease outbreaks, food insecurity, starvation, air and water pollution, water shortages, suicide and mental health issues.
Increased demands on our health system means that our abilities to manage other health issues will be constrained.
In April 2019, the Australian Medical Association, with every major medical college in Australia, unanimously wrote an open letter to all political parties pointing out "the significant and profound impacts climate change has on the health of people and our health system".
This followed similar action internationally by virtually all the world's medical organisations.
A patient who ignores overwhelming medical advice regarding treatable life-threatening illness would be a fool. This is what our world leaders are doing.
3. I liken our planet, in its present state, to a patient showing serious signs of a life-threatening illness, the causes of which are known. The time to act is now, not waiting until the patient is on life support in intensive care.
We have a climate emergency and we must act now.
