Derek Thomas MP is hosting a meeting of West Cornwall’s Climate Focus group on to hear about the effect of Climate Change on public health.
The Climate Focus group – organised by Derek, Pippa Stilwell, the WI’s Climate Ambassador, and Green Mayor of Penzance, Cllr Jonathan How – has been holding webinars to learn about action being taken locally and nationally to tackle the climate crisis.
The next meeting will hear from Dr Richard Smith, chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, about the threat that climate change poses to human health.
Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity, and health professionals worldwide are already responding to the health harms caused by this unfolding crisis. While no one is safe from these risks, the people whose health is being harmed first and worst by the climate crisis are the people who contribute least to its causes, and who are least able to protect themselves and their families against it - people in low-income and disadvantaged countries and communities.
The consequences are especially significant for children. The World Health Organisation estimates that over 80% of the illnesses, injuries and deaths due to climate change are in children.
The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change brings together health professionals to advocate for a response to the climate and ecological crisis, promote the health benefits that flow from those responses, and empower members and health professionals to make changes in their professional and personal lives to respond to the crisis.
Dr Smith qualified in medicine and worked in hospitals in Scotland and New Zealand before joining the British Medical Journal, of which he was editor and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group from 1991 until 2004. He worked as a television doctor with the BBC and TV-AM and is now adjunct professor at Imperial College Institute of Global Health Innovation.
Derek says:
“Climate change is affecting everything that is essential to good health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.
“Dr Richard Smith has years of experience in studying these issues, and bringing together medical experts to demand action, and I’m looking forward to his diagnosis of the problem – and his suggestions for a cure.”
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https://parliament-uk.zoom.us/j/9533180572
Meeting ID: 953 318 0572
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