On 31 August, The Weekend Australian published a 1,258 word article by journalist Chris Uhlmann headlined, ‘Fossil fuel bans are hazardous to our health’.

It opened with: “Illiteracy about how the world actually works is everywhere but is often paraded by some of the nation’s most highly educated people. Take Doctors for the Environment Australia. The group’s website declares ‘coal, oil and gas are health hazards’.”

The article followed the release last month of a DEA report, covered by Croakey, that identifies the wide-ranging harms caused by the “extraction, processing, utilisation and waste disposal of fossil fuels” and presents a clear message that “we must quit fossil fuels to protect health”.

Uhlmann’s article makes a number of arguments that fossil fuels industry lobbyists might be happy to promote, including that “almost nothing in modern medicine would be possible without fossil fuels” and that many of the harms blamed on fossil fuels are overstated.

He concludes in favour of “the continued prescription of oil, coal and gas”, evidently not appreciating the weight of support across the health and medical sector, globally and in Australia, for an end to such prescribing.

DEA's rebuttal published in Croakey highlights that:

 - The health hazards of fossil fuels are established

 - We need to wean off our dependency on fossil fuels to protect health

 - As medical doctors we are qualified to make this assessment

Read the full article in Croakey which was published on the 5th of September 2024