There are public health professionals around the country already implementing groundbreaking strategies to respond to and prevent the potentially devastating impacts of climate change. Others are in the trenches, tackling public health problems day-in-and-day-out without recognizing that many of them are directly related to climate change.
SHARE YOUR IDEAS!
Is your community taking innovative steps to get ready for heat waves or hurricanes? Or have you started to drive less and walk more – which is healthier for the climate, and for you? Post a comment below to share your good ideas and recommendations about everyday steps we can all take make our planet healthier!
Consider the following questions:
- What actions are you taking to reduce your contribution to climate change and to help your family live a healthier lifestyle?
- What innovative measures are already being implemented by communities to protect kids, the sick, underserved communities and the elderly – and how do you bring them to your community?
- What strategies are being spearheaded by public health professionals to address or prevent the biggest threats of all?
8 comments:
Thanks for taking on this important issue. It is something that I try to be aware of in my personal decisions (like eating less meat and carpooling) and is also something I'd like to learn how to address in my public health work.
In Oregon, State Public Health Division employees have voluntarily organized the Climate Change Committee of Public Health Oregon (C3PO). We meet monthly at lunch and, as volunteers, have developed a mission statement, work with our State's Facilities Management to encourage green building practices, have organized climate change lecture series that have occured monthly since November, and have volunteered to help organize the State's Public Health Week activities. We have become a visible entity within our Public Health Division (we're all volunteers with no funding), anticipate growing membership, and hope that we're the seed for future climate change public health programs and policy development.
good work, Lesa!
The linkages between health, poverty, energy and development policy have increasingly become recognised, as is the need to effectively manage all of these at the same time towards a common goal.
This requires the the development of multi-disciplinary teams who can address all these issues in a systemic and timely manner.
Local community development/management teams need to be set up to address local needs from a sustainable development point of view, and gain access to the necessary resources and power to implement and monitor/evaluate.
The key areas which need to be managed include, health, environment, energy and resource utilisation.
I suggest that Public Health Specialists are ideally placed to gain support for, set up and manage such structures.
The key question is how do we get enough trained Public Healty Specialists to set up, resource and manage appropriate sustainable decision making and implementation teams? Also how long would it take, given the rapid deteriorations we are witnessing almost on a daily basis.
Perhaps such a strategy could form the basis for the development of a viable community protection system, which can address disease, lifestyle, climatic effects, evergy availability, biodiversity and all the other vitally important issues in an integrated manner.
War is the biggest destroyer of the environment of all, from production of materiel to use of same, not to speak of the damage produced by illegal occupations...
There is no way to accomplish all we need to, in any justice concern, unless we first stop war.
So if you are working for peace, stop paying for war.
(www.peacetaxfund.org, and google "conscience and peace tax international"
War is the biggest destroyer of the environment of all, from production of materiel to use of same, not to speak of the damage produced by illegal occupations...
There is no way to accomplish all we need to, in any justice concern, unless we first stop war.
So if you are working for peace, stop paying for war.
(www.peacetaxfund.org, and google "conscience and peace tax international"
I think National Public health Week is a great idea but is it just a gimmick? It seems odd to me that these initiatives keep popping up randomly and yet, I still can't recycle anything but paper since moving to Lebanon TN. In Nashville, I used to recycle everything I could but now, the round trip I would have to make in my car defeats the purpose of what I am doing. Recycling has been a positive initiative for years so why am I struggling to find places to put my recycling in a town the size of Lebanon?
As a public health nurse(Minnesota), I have many concerns about the impact of Global Warming on the environment. For myself, I have developed upper respiratory problems, in the past 10 years, which are exacerbated when in the heart of the city. It's interesting that when I am visiting northern Minnesota...I can breathe much better. Aside from my personal reactions to pollutants in the environment, I have stopped using my clothes dryer, and hang all my laundry up to dry. It also puts moisture back in the air...which is an added plus. I recycle anything I can...and ask my family members to also recycle. If each of us takes small action steps to reduce, reuse and recycle...in the end I believe it will help improve the health of our environment. We must all spread the word...daily, and to practice what we preach. Thank you.
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