(AU) Australian Doctors Accuse Government Of Failing On Climate Change

Sydney Morning Herald - Nick O'Malley

A group of more than 700 Australian doctors has written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to accuse Energy and Emissions Reductions Minister Angus Taylor of failing in his duties by not acting to protect Australians from the impacts of climate change.

“We are health professionals and organisations bearing witness to the harm Mr Taylor’s failure to reduce emissions is causing to the health of Australians,” says the letter, whose signatories include Professor Nick Talley, the editor-in-chief of the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Clare Skinner, who is the incoming president of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine and Professor Peter Sainsbury of the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health.

Angus Taylor and Scott Morrison are taking a bet on hydrogen in the government's imminent energy technology road map. Credit:Adam McLean

“We are also united by our concern about the climate crisis and the impact it is having on the safety and wellbeing of Australians and our neighbours. Public health is inextricably linked to climate health. Climate damage is here now – and it is killing people.”

The doctors accuse Mr Taylor of failing in his ministerial duties by directing public money to fossil fuel projects, failing to adequately reduce Australia’s emissions obligations and by not committing Australia to a 2050 net zero emissions target.

A spokesman for Mr Taylor said in response, “The Morrison Government is delivering record levels of investment in renewables, cutting emissions, and reducing energy prices for Australian households. Facts that Labor, the Climate and Health Alliance and other activist groups choose to ignore.”

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“As a result, Australians are already seeing higher rates of respiratory illness, diarrhoea and morbidity requiring hospital admission during hot days, and higher rates of suicide in rural areas during drought years.

In the letter the doctors said there is already a noticeable health impact from increased frequency and intensity of bushfires, floods, dust storms, drought and extreme heat in Australia.

“The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and gas that drives global warming is also a major contributor to air pollution – this silent killer is linked to the premature deaths of 3000 Australians each year.

Higher levels of air pollution are also associated with increasing illness and death related to ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive airways disease, lung cancer and asthma.”

They wrote that the annual cost to Australia from air pollution mortality alone is estimated to be $11.1-$24.3 billion.

The letter was co-ordinated by the Australian Conservation Foundation.

Links

• Letter to Morrison (pdf)
• (AU) Act Now On Wildfires, Global Climate Change, Human Health, Study Says
• (AU) Australia’s New National Preventive Health Strategy Must Include Climate Change, 30 Health Groups Say
• Briefs: Scientists Find New Way Climate Change Can Ruin Life As We Know It
• (AU) Why Climate Change Has The Potential To Cause More Pandemics
• (AU) Coal-Fired Pollution Killing 800 Australians A Year: Report