Climate Crisis Call to Action: Major Obstacles but Hope for an “Energized Base”

  We have known for more than half a century that the earth is heating up and scientists have long foretold the consequences. Yet in these same decades, the earth’s population has increased dramatically; the demand for convenience, quality of life, and consumer goods has expanded; energy consumption and CO2 emissions have skyrocketed; and we are living in the hottest climate on record. So why aren’t we doing more to stop this catastrophe? One way to answer this question is by contrasting our inertia with the successful response to another public health crisis: the AIDS epidemic. Act Up, the political movement of the 1980s and 1990s, is credited with accelerating the development of drugs to combat HIV. Act Up owed its success to many factors, beginning with its powerful slogan, “Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!” Its demographic—educated, articulate white men—gave that slogan a fiercely audible voice, and the rising death toll, filling hospitals with tragically stricken victims, gave the cause indelible images of high-stakes suffering. Finally, Act Up had a very particular goal: to identify and speed the development of drugs that would cure the disease. In this, it had a powerful ally: the pharmaceutical industry, which saw its chance to profit from drug development. Climate change is an entirely different ballgame. It has no catchy slogan. To the contrary, the term “climate change” has been purged in some governmental and political circles. Further, climate...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Featured Guest Perspective climate change medical education medical students physicians Source Type: blogs