21st Century
Health Care
is Planetary
Health Care
because people can’t be healthy on a sick planet!
Doctor AIR Care examines the planet, which is not sounding too healthy these days . . .
Climate-health activism is hard work, but it’s definitely not boring. The perfect beat for a chronically-retiring pediatrician!!
Climate change is affecting everything we care about, including our physical and mental health and safety.
What could be more fulfilling than supporting the climate activism of a former tiny patient, all grown up into an amazing young woman??
The KidsClimateDoc BLOG
Climate Inaction: an assault on the mental health of our kids
In some circles, it’s fashionable to blame the climate angst of young people like Greta Thunberg on environmental education and the constant deluge of dire warnings about imminent climate catastrophe . . .
#Ride for Their Lives - UK Peds Docs Cycle to COP 26
#RideForTheirLives participants are scheduled to arrive in Glasgow on October 31st, the opening day of COP26, to deliver their documents and demand action, on behalf of the world’s children.
Climate Change and the Political Levers of Change
Perhaps the greatest lever available to us is the pricing of greenhouse gas pollution.
A Canadian Carbon Election Parable
As Jesus used to say, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Urgent call to health professionals: Help save Patient M.E.
we’re hoping for a concerted effort on the part of the world’s health professionals . . . to get this malignant condition under control, and help keep M.E. in a livable state.
What does the climate crisis require of health professionals??
This year, a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons came into force. Sounds great, huh? The only problem is this: not one of the nuclear nations signed on. We can’t let that happen with fossil fuels.
Will “Glasgow” mean we screwed up our last chance?
This November, the city of Glasgow will have its chance, as host of COP26, to give new meaning to its own name. In this make-or-break climate decade, will Glasgow come to mean “we screwed up our last chance”?
That Heat Dome Could have Killed my Granny
Granny Blacklock knew how to keep cool . . . Summer after summer for close to 92 years, she survived the Okanagan heat. I wonder if she would have survived the heat dome.
The Unhealthy Tip of the Climate Change Iceberg
We who live in 2021 are faced with a metaphoric iceberg of our own, and one of gargantuan proportions. This iceberg (yes, it’s a melting one) is a human creation called climate change, and we’re steaming straight towards it at full speed.
Active Transportation: Good for You, Good for the Planet
We think of exercise as something we squeeze into our lives (or not) in the form of workouts; meanwhile, when we need to go somewhere, we'll probably take the SUV. Why is this? Are we just lazy? Do we no longer have legs?
Put a Price on Carbon Pollution; It’s Good for our Health!
In days gone by, we humans made our messes, and expected the planet to mop them up. But we’ve multiplied to almost 8 billion people, and the Earth can no longer absorb our impact. Collectively, we’re rapidly wrecking the place, crossing one planetary boundary after another.
Not on the Peds Conference Agenda: The State of the Planet
The pediatric conference had record attendance this year . . . And yet, in three and a half days, there wasn’t a single mention of the other looming health threat of the 21st century: climate change and the critical state of the planet’s health.
Burn Calories, not Fossil Fuels - Use Human-powered Transportation
We drive to the gym for our workouts. We have treadmills in our basements, on-line Pilates classes, and exercise bikes. Sometimes we even go out for walks in our neighbourhoods. We get a dog, so we'll have to walk. Our dog gets obese . . .
Climate criminal desflurane banished from Ontario Hospital
. . . one stands out as particularly culpable. Desflurane. If there were a carbon price on its head, this climate criminal would be dead and gone faster than it puts people to sleep.
Operating rooms have big carbon footprints too!
Help. Health. Healing. That’s what health care systems are supposed to be about. So it’s something of an oxymoron that a system intended for health is harming the health of the planet . . .
First, do no harm while treating asthma
. . . To put it simply, our health care is harming the planet and consequently our health . . .
There’s no safe limit when it comes to air pollution
Sudburnians are all too familiar with the killing power of air pollution. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and other toxic emissions from industry and mining killed our lakes and forests and stripped our landscape down to bare black rock . . .