The George Mason University Centre for Climate Change Communication and the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health have called on US President, Donald Trump, to make a New Year’s Resolution to protect Americans’ health, safety and wellbeing by stopping the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
On Thursday, January 2, 2020, the George Mason University Centre for Climate Change Communication faculty member and Executive Director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, Dr Mona Sarfaty, on behalf of 20 other leading health organisations including the American Medical Association, released a public letter to President Trump urging him to keep America in the Paris Climate Agreement, for the sake of the health of every American.
The letter reads thus:
Dear President Trump,
Americans often welcome in the New Year by making resolutions. In that spirit, many of us are committing to taking steps to improve our health. We’re resolving to move more, eat better and get more fresh air. We’re trying to improve our financial health as well, by spending more wisely. Mr. President, with one action, you could help us achieve all of these things:
Stop our withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Our organisations represent hundreds of thousands of our country’s doctors, nurses and other health care providers. We are seeing, right now, the harms to our health that global warming is creating. We foresee much greater health harms to all Americans, especially our children and grandchildren, if we do not join with the rest of the world to respond to the climate crisis—because climate change is a public health emergency.
Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement is not just about preventing the worst of the devastating health harms climate change will bring. It’s also about seizing this public health crisis and turning it into a major public health opportunity. Climate solutions are health solutions.
Accelerating the inevitable progress toward renewable energy and energy efficiency will allow us all to breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water. Building our communities and transportation systems to be biking- and walking-friendly and building more affordable mass transit will help people live more active, healthier lifestyles. Climate-friendly approaches to agriculture, soil management and forests will improve the quality of our food, water and air.
Every one of these steps will save lives, increase productivity and reduce health costs.
America can do this. And the world needs America’s leadership.
President Trump, we ask you to make a New Year’s resolution that will protect and improve the health of every American next year and every year to come.
Stop the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
Signed,
Mona Sarfaty, MD
Executive Director, Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health
The leading health organisations include: Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, American Association of Community Psychiatrists, Climate Psychiatry Alliance, Endocrine Society, Florida Clinicians for Climate Action and Islamic Medical Society of North America.
Others are Massachusetts Medical Society, Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate, National Association of Social Workers, National Medical Association, Medical Advocates for Healthy Air North Carolina, Ohio Clinicians for Climate Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Vermont Climate and Health Alliance, and Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action.
