Open letter – 4 Tasmanian doctors, 24 November 2022
Tasmanian doctors urge Plibersek to protect takayna/Tarkine rainforest
A number of Tasmanian doctors are calling for Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to protect Tasmania’s globally significant takayna/Tarkine rainforest in the state’s north-west.
As doctors in Tasmania, we urge the Minister to take immediate action to stop the construction of a tailings dam in takayna for a range of health reasons. In the medical profession, we are critically aware of evidence linking climate change to a significant decline in human health.
It makes no sense to destroy hundreds of hectares of pristine carbon-absorbing native forest for a polluting dam when the single most effective climate action Tasmania should take now is to cease native forest logging.
We were among 250 doctors and medical students who in 2020 signed an open letter to the Tasmanian Premier calling for an end to native forest logging based on health concerns. This position aligns with our Hippocratic Oath, our most profound undertaking as medical professionals: “first, do no harm”.
Since our letter, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has declared a ‘Code Red for humanity’, indicating we are at a crossroads. We still have time to act, but only just.
What instead do we see? Nonsensical governmental inaction at state and federal levels, inaction that escalates threats to human health in Tasmania and beyond.
And what a natural environment is takanya! The region meets seven of 10 possible criteria that would make it eligible for World Heritage-listing. The vast cool temperate rainforest is one of the most carbon-dense forests known to humanity – and the value of that cannot be overstated at this moment in history. In what kind of world does a government endorse the destruction of an estimated 350 football pitches of wilderness in a climate emergency for a company’s short term profit?
Globally climate change is already responsible for countless deaths from a variety of causes, and what we are beginning to see is just the melting tip of an iceberg. Climate change’s higher temperatures, more extreme weather events and increasing frequency and severity of bushfires present obvious direct risks to human life. But with each event comes a wave of indirect negative impacts. Bushfires, for example, exacerbate many diseases including asthma, emphysema, heart attacks and strokes, along with severe psychological distress. The hidden death toll from the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 stands at more than 400, mostly from the effects of smoke inhalation. Increasing rates of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in young people – who DO understand the urgent need for climate action – can be partly attributed to their despair at inadequate response by Governments to the crisis.
Our concerns over climate change are shared by many of our representative organisations including the Australian Medical Association and Doctors for the Environment.
Minister, please say no to the dam to protect our forests and their important carbon stores as a public health priority for our future.
Signed
Dr Lydia Birch (Emergency Registrar)
Dr Darren Briggs (General Practitioner)
Dr Elizabeth Haworth (Public Health Physician)
Dr Felicity Rea (General Practitioner)
