Physicians have a duty to combat global climate change and the risk it poses to the long-term health and well-being of the world’s population, the Journal of the American Medical Association’s editorial board said this week.
The 131-year-old Journal, which does not necessarily reflect the policy positions of the American Medical Association (although the two are closely affiliated) announced in an editorial released this week that it would spotlight climate change and its various threats.
“Should physicians be concerned about climate change and its associated effects on health or is it outside the remit of medicine much like poverty and war? As physicians have come to recognize that many aspects of daily living affect health, such as working conditions, pollution, education, mental health, and psychosocial aspects of disease, medicine has broadened its research, clinical, and policy agendas,” the editorial reads:
The editorial notes that war and poverty are of course detrimental to health. However, it continues, those issues need to be resolved by generals and politicians. Climate change, on the other hand, is an area that requires the direct involvement of physicians.
“The great gains in well-being in the 20th century occurred because of the concerted effort to improve the health of entire populations. Today, in the early part of the 21st century, it is critical to recognize that climate change poses the same threat to health as the lack of sanitation, clean water and pollution did in the early 20th century,” the editorial added. “Understanding and characterizing this threat and educating the medical community, public and policy makers are crucial if the health of the world’s population is to continue to improve during the latter half of the 21st century.”
The Journal of the American Medical Association’s is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world, according to the group’s website.
