Fiona Armstrong, along with Nobel Laureate and Queensland medical researcher, Professor Peter Doherty, write in The Conversation (21.7.16) about the pressing need to take health considerations and well-being factors into account when formulating national climate policy.
‘As the new Australian parliament takes the reins, health groups are moving to ensure that health minister Sussan Ley addresses a major health threat in this term of government: climate change.
‘Largely ignored by successive federal governments, the health risks from climate change are increasingly urgent. One or two degrees of warming at a global level may not sound like much, but if you take many organisms (including humans) too far outside their comfort zone, the consequences are deadly.
‘The Climate and Health Alliance – a coalition of concerned health groups, researchers, academics and professional associations – is calling on the Australian government to develop a national strategy for climate, health and well-being.’
- Climate policy needs a new lens: health and well-being »
- Climate and Health Alliance website »
- Climate-constrained healthcare »
- From Townsville to Tuvalu: health and climate change in Australia and the Asia Pacific region »
- Australian Medical Association declares climate change a health emergency »
- The rise of ‘eco-anxiety’: climate change affects our mental health, too »
- Car accidents, drownings, violence: hotter temperatures will mean more deaths from injury »
- You’re not the only one feeling helpless. Eco-anxiety can reach far beyond bushfire communities »
- Australia needs a national approach to combat the health effects of climate change »
- Climate change and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health: discussion paper »