Our Future: Action needed to heal planetary wounds

As professionals who have spent our lives caring for the health of others, we are acutely aware that climate change is already affecting the health of many Australians.

For drought-stricken farmers, economic ruin and the stress of failed crops is becoming a dust-biting reality. And then there’s regional communities, where anxiety and fear surrounding extended bushfire seasons are the new norm.  

It’s time to wake up and enliven the political will to support the well-being of our country.  

Consider the number of deaths brought on due to heat waves. During the terrible Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009, there were twice as many heat-related deaths as fire-related ones – and that’s not counting those who were hospitalised with organ failure who eventually pulled through.

It’s not just people with existing conditions who are vulnerable, as you might imagine.

Even fit and resilient young people were suffering heat stroke during athletic events last summer that took place in supposedly cooler evenings.

Let’s not forget the severe respiratory impacts of increased air pollution nor the mental health concerns of drought-stricken farmers, among whom the suicide rate has escalated in the past two years.

We’re only going to see an increase in incidents like these.  

As the IPCC recently reported, we have a mere 12 years to slash our emissions by almost half compared to 2010 levels, and efforts from individuals alone aren’t going to cut it – we need political action at the federal level.

Australia’s weak emission reduction targets and disdain for worst-case scenarios sabotage our country’s future. Imperilled farms cannot be saved long-term by billions of dollars of drought relief badistance alone. Sadly, this is a Band Aid for a planetary wound inflicted by man-made climate change.  The divisive politics around climate, emissions and energy have set us back a decade at least, and we have no credible climate policy that will allay people’s climate-related health concerns.

With every day of inaction that pbades, the health outlook for Australians grows worse.

Australians deserve strong action from our elected leaders on this issue, as we face an increasingly urgent health catastrophe, that must be immediately addressed.

The lives of all of us literally depend on it.

Dr Marianne Cannon and Dr Joseph Ting are emergency physicians based in Brisbane.