Doctors’ group praises the AMA’s revised policy on climate change and health

Doctors for the Environment Australia applauds the Australian Medical Association ‘s clear and unequivocal endorsement of the scientific evidence for climate change in last week’s AMA position statement on climate change and health.

DEA also supports the AMA’s warning that climate change will have multiple and increasingly serious impacts on public health, and risks overshadowing the medical advances of the past half century.

However DEA encourages the AMA to develop its policy, last revised in 2008, to convey the urgency of the situation. It needs to demand of Government the introduction of effective measures to tackle the underlying problem of rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions- measures that Australia should be presenting to the UN Climate Change meeting in Paris in December.

Says DEA Chair Professor Kingsley Faulkner: “Wonderful technological advances and a sound business case for making an urgent, determined and staged transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, whilst retraining and protecting the economic interests of workers affected by the process, are possible. However political will must be present for this to occur.”

Climate change is a public health emergency and DEA urges the AMA- Australia’s largest health advocacy organisation- to throw its weight behind such strategies as stronger emission reduction targets, fossil fuel divestment and expanded renewable energy technologies.

“The planet is running an increasingly high fever”, says Professor Faulkner. ” Effective remedies are available and must be implemented immediately for treatment to be effective.

“Further delay will worsen the prognosis for our planet and, ultimately, for all of us.”

Professor Kingsley Faulkner,
Kingsley Faulkner is the Chair of Doctors for the Environment Australia. He is a surgeon awarded an Order of Australia for his services to medicine and public health.

Dr Helen Redmond,
Helen Redmond is a member of the NSW Branch of Doctors for the Environment Australia. She is a rehabilitation physician.

Further information

DEA’s Climate Change & Health Policy 2013:

http://dea.org.au/images/general/DEA_Climate_Change_and_Health_Policy_05-13.pdf

AMA Policy on Climate Change and Health- 2004: Revised 2008. Revised 2015:

https://ama.com.au/position-statement/ama-position-statement-climate-change-and-human-health-2004-revised-2015

About DEA

DEA is an independent health advocacy organisation of medical doctors raising awareness of the link between health and the environment.

http://dea.org.au

DEA is supported by a scientific advisory committee, consisting of:

Professor Stephen Boyden AM; Professor Peter Doherty AC, FRS, FAA; Professor Bob Douglas AO; Professor Dave Griggs; Professor Michael Kidd AM; Professor David de Kretser AC; Professor Steve Leeder AO; Professor Ian Lowe AO; Professor Robyn McDermott; Professor Peter Newman; Sir Gustav Nossal, AC, CBE, FAA, FRS; Professor Hugh Possingham; Professor Lawrie Powell AC; Professor Fiona Stanley AC; Dr Rosemary Stanton OAM; Norman Swan.
Carmela Ferraro Media and Communications Officer Doctors for the Environment Australia