WHO, Air pollution…. kills 7 million people every year: https://www.who.int/air-pollution/news-and-events/how-air-pollution-is-destroying-our-health nine out of ten people now breathe polluted air
Scientific American, impacts of Climate Change on Global Health: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-is-having-a-major-impact-on-global-health/
NIH, Impact of pollution on Child health: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP299
27th that pollution kills more people than tobacco does, and three times as many as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined: http://the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32345-0/fulltext
US Health services cause 10% of emissions, UK 3-4%: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4900601/
US Health emissions 10%: https://www.vox.com/2019/1/17/18184358/healthcare-doctors-climate-change-divesting
NHS Long Term Plan: Objective Accountable Open https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/terms-of-reference-nhs-assembly.pdf
Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Past President Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology “Please let us all do something individually and collectively to preserve our climate and environment for us and for future generations. If we borrow we can repay but if we steal without ability to replace, the inhabitants of the planet would be the losers.”
Sir James Underwood, Emeritus Professor of Pathology, University of Sheffield, and Past-President, Royal College of Pathologists. “The current pace of climate change is very alarming and I’m pleased to support your initiative.”
Professor John Middleton, President UK Faculty of Public Health “Climate breakdown is getting worse and this is bad for human, animal and planetary health; the Paris agreement challenges are not being met and even harder reductions in carbon have to be set, if humans and our planet are to survive; and as someone once said ‘we can’t have healthy people in a sick Planet’.”
Professor David Pencheon, Honorary Professor of Health and Sustainable Development, University of Exeter, UK “Working as a health professional for 40 years, the scientific and empirical evidence is clear. Climate and environmental breakdown with plummeting levels of biodiversity are the biggest health threats we face. All that makes life worth living is at severe risk. The solutions need to be bold and quick – they will bring both immediate and long term benefits to all living systems including human beings. This is happening on our watch and will be our legacy. Historians will look back on the first three decades of the 21st century and comment: ‘they knew so much, yet they nearly did so little’.”
Professor John Walley, Prof of International Public Health, University of Leeds “For 30 years, in Africa and SE Asia, I’ve worked as a public health doctor… I’ve read the evidence, seen for myself and I hear from people affected how climate change is affecting the tropics. In brief, it is causing droughts and floods. Farmers struggle with the now unpredictable rainfall. Food production has peaked and expected to decline. While the number of people to be fed increases. There is poor access and quality of health and family planning services – contributing to the high unmet need and unplanned pregnancy. Less food per hectare, more people. The result is food insecurity, hunger, death or migration. This is a global health emergency.”
Image credit: Sarah Creswell