December 19, 2020 - In 2019, DEA embarked on a campaign calling for the government to declare a climate emergency and take urgent action aligned to the science. It called on medical colleges to ...
Climate Change
Human pressure on the natural environment is widening and escalating. Environmental threats to human wellbeing, health and survival has become evident over the past two to three decades.
Doctors for the Environment Australia seeks to raise awareness of the risks to local and global human health – present and future – from environmentally damaging and disruptive technological choices and related short-term economic priorities.
DEA is focussed on human-induced climate change, widely regarded as now the most serious, and growing, worldwide threat to human health and survival and to social stability.
In September 2019, Doctors for the Environment Australia declared a Climate Health Emergency and were supported by numerous medical organisations both in Australia and overseas.
Climate Change Resources
POLICY PAPER AND POSITION STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
DEA Policy: Action on climate change and health – governance and strategy : the need for federal leadership and new Commonwealth laws to guide climate change mitigation and adaptation with a focus on present and future threats.
FACTSHEETS ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Heatwaves and Health (Jan 2020)
Bushfires and Health: our fire-prone continent is at particular risk from the impacts of climate change, and we are experiencing more extreme heat events, an increase in severe fire danger days and a longer fire season. (Dec 2017)
Severe storms, floods and your health (March 2017)
How Climate Change Affects Your Health: The Facts (September 2021)
PRESENTATIONS ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Webinar on climate change and health for medical practitioners (March 2021)
PowerPoint presentation that details why climate change and sustainability is core business for health professionals and an essential part of health education. (July 2018)
DEA SUBMISSIONS RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Zali Steggall’s climate change Bills (Nov 2020)
Should you talk with your doctor about climate change? | Helen Redmond | TEDxDarlinghurst
December 9, 2020 - Climate Change has been declared a health emergency by doctors all over the world. Dr Helen Redmond explains in this compelling and inspirational TedxDarlinghurst talk why climate change is a health problem, ...
Media release: DEA welcomes the WA Climate and Health Inquiry
December 7, 2020 - DEA welcomes the WA Climate and Health Inquiry the first statutory inquiry in the world focused on the health impacts of climate change. WA DEA Chair Dr Emma-Leigh Synnott says that ...
Media Release: Launch of 2020 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change
December 2, 2020 - In response to the 2020 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change which has revealed the most concerning trends in climate change impacts to date, DEA is ...
Climate Change (National Framework for Adaptation and Mitigation) Bills 2020
November 20, 2020 - Zali Steggall’s proposed climate change Bills have triggered the first parliamentary inquiry into why Australia should commit and legislate to net zero emissions by 2050. The Bills will assist the ...
Doctors: Set emissions targets to zero as quickly as possible to address dangerous climate change
November 13, 2020 - Doctors are urging all state and federal governments to set emissions targets to zero as quickly as possible to address dangerous climate change. Medical group Doctors for the Environment Australia is responding to the ...
DEA and AMA partner on climate
October 26, 2020 - Read our media release here.
The Mandarin Opinion: health, not gas, should be put at the centre of Australia’s economic recovery
October 21, 2020 - “In a future where climate change looms large as a threat to health and where our primary disease burden is shaped by lifestyle and environment, shouldn’t we place health front ...
Victorian inquiry into environmental infrastructure for growing populations (5 Oct 2020)
October 5, 2020 - The Environment and Planning Committee of the Victorian Legislative Assembly has called for submissions to an inquiry into the current and future arrangements to secure environmental infrastructure, particularly parks and ...
The Medical Republic: Disaster on the doorstep
September 28, 2020 - Several doctors speak powerfully about their lived experiences of the summer’s horror bushfires–both from a personal perspective and also professionally. For Drs Kim Loo, Michelle Hamrosi and Trudi Beck, the ...
ZOONOSES: joining the dots between people, animals and the natural world
August 26, 2020 - Zoonosis is an infectious disease that can be passed from an animal to a human. Our newest fact sheet explores zoonotic diseases, how ongoing human encroachment on natural habitats has ...
Eco anxiety as the earth continues to heat
August 6, 2020 - Dr Lucy Watt writes “I am an “eco-worrier”. I worry about the environmental nightmare that climate change has in store for us, our children and their children.” While reading the ...
Canberra Times: Climate change is the next health crisis we face
July 8, 2020 - Covid-19 has its challenges, especially in Victoria at the moment. Dr Beau Frigault writes that generally, though, Australia relative to other parts of the world has managed the pandemic well. ...
Submission to the Issues Paper on Health Arrangements in Natural Disasters – Bushfires Royal Commission
June 25, 2020 - The Royal Commission on the 2019-20 summer bushfires released an Issues Paper in May, specifically addressing the health care arrangements of natural disasters. DEA’s submission calls for a national health ...
#turnoffthegas
June 23, 2020 - Doctors for the Environment Australia members urge the Morrison Government to seek an alternative to a gas led recovery from the Covid19 pandemic. With Australia’s abundance of solar and wind ...
Royal Commission into National Disaster Arrangements (Bushfires Royal Commission) April 2020.
April 29, 2020 - The health impacts of last summer’s devastating bushfire season are serious, complex and wide-ranging and health is integral to making decisions about emergency and disaster responses. More research is needed to ...
The Canberra Times: Let us also rise to the climate challenge
April 29, 2020 - Dr Trudi Beck says she knows that coronavirus is no small matter, and as a doctor, she takes it as seriously as anyone can. But, Dr Beck writes, “I also ...
Independent Review into SA’s 2019-20 Bushfire Season
March 20, 2020 - DEA highlighted the serious omissions of consideration of neither health nor climate change in the review. DEA recommendations include the acknowledgment of the ongoing impact of climate change on bushfires, ...
RiotAct: Community support is the way to beat distressing times, says Canberra doctor
March 20, 2020 - There are clear parallels with society’s response to the summer’s bushfires and the coronavirus outbreak–and as a community, we must work together, says Dr Arnagretta Hunter. “One of my best ...
Independent Australia: Australia needs to commit to target of net-zero emissions by 2050
March 2, 2020 - After two decades of refusal to acknowledge the science of climate change, change, it has taken a national bushfire tragedy for policy-makers to wake-up, writes Dr John Iser From climate change ...