PUBLIC HEALTH CALL TO CLIMATE ACTION: PHYSICIANS’ GUIDE IN FRAMING CLIMATE CHANGE CO-BENEFITS TO PATIENTS

Abstract

Medical professionals are often on the front lines of the complex interaction between climate change and health, putting them in a unique position to be intermediaries in interventions using a co-benefits approach. A 2017 study conducted by Wynes, Kimberly, and Nicholas provides a framework to explore four specific individual actions that have the greatest decrease of carbon emissions: 1) having one fewer child, 2) living car-free, 3) avoiding air travel, and 4) eating a plant-based diet. This paper explores the environmental drivers, health benefits, and barriers of these actions to provide doctors with the tools to identify patients who may be more open to these recommendations and how to approach the topics. The impact physicians have on individual behavior has the potential to scale these actions to a level that will have significant impact. Implementation of climate and health identification strategies into medical school curriculums, in conjunction with physician advocacy, would create a bottom up approach that could promote social and political change through community education.