Show notes
If your goal is to save your patients from the Climate Emergency...On April 6, 2021, Earth passed 420 parts per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This was the halfway point to doubling CO2 relative to preindustrial levels. Although nothing suddenly shifts at this threshold, it shows just how far we have come. CO2 and other forms of carbon in the atmosphere trap heat. They are like a blanket that covers the Earth, keeping us warm. To double that blanket is to trap double heat trapping. There is a delay in seeing the full effects of rising carbon, so we have already locked in worsening warming and climate change for years to come. Meanwhile humans keep burning... It turns out the planet is sensitive to even small increases in average temperature. A rise of 1.5 degrees C is bad but a rise of 2 degrees C is much worse. 2 degrees C means large scale flooding, crop failure, wildfires, and the death of nearly all coral reefs. At current rates of emissions, we are on a path to see 3-5 degrees C rise by 2100. This level of warming is predicted to cause a massive shift in what part of the world is habitable.Particularly concerning is the idea of tipping points. The more warming we get, the more polar melting, which causes release of more carbon trapped in Siberian permafrost and also less reflected sunlight (because of less ice and snow). Both of those things lead to more warming, which leads to more melting. And so on, and so on. Those are 2 powerful and worrying vicious cycles that may have already begun.Climate change causes a host of health problems. Both heat and elevated CO2 levels in the air have been both found to impair our ability to think. Altered weather patterns cause flooding or drought, crop failure, and food insecurity. Wildfires have already increased dramatically, and are predicted to increase multi-fold more as we see more warming. Rising sea level and sinking of the US East coast (due to melting Greenland, which occupies the same tectonic plate) means flooding of coastal cities. Overall, people who are poorer will suffer terribly, but we will all suffer as this century unfolds.The worldwide burning of fossil fuels also releases toxins and pollutants (like particulates, ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, mercury, arsenic, chromium) on a massive scale, damaging our land, water, and air. PM2.5 is a name for very small particulates in the atmosphere. PM2.5 is known to cause significant health problems when we breathe them. We can measure the increase in deaths from lung disease but also heart attacks and early death.To solve the climate crisis, the planet needs behavior change on a massive scale. Enter the physician. Most of the remedies to the climate crisis increase the health of our patients. Healthy behaviors can be a win-win for the patient, their loved ones, and for the environment. Switching from animal based nutrition to plant based nutrition is a particularly effective change we can make to achieve better health and significantly lower our footprint. Red meat in particular is extremely damaging to our planet, accounting for the lion’s share of carbon emissions and rainforest destruction. We physicians can also help patients adopt behaviors that will protect them in the short term from the immediate health effects of climate change.While we physicians can accomplish a lot by just advocating with our patients, we need to reach outside of our medical practice as well. Your community may not believe a climate scientist but many are more willing to take scientific information from a doctor.
