February 26, 2020 - The commitment by the ALP to a target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050 is a welcome sign that Australia may eventually join 73 other countries in doing so, ...
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)
Media release: Doctors’ open letter to the Premier of Tasmania: logging is a health hazard
February 17, 2020 - Dear Premier Gutwein, Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) is alarmed at the resumption of old growth logging in the North West of Tasmania, as it imperils community health. We ...
Victoria’s new environmental laws submission (February 2020)
February 7, 2020 - This submission focuses primarily upon aspects of the new EP laws as they relate to air pollution and climate change, as these are closely related to DEA policy and expertise. ...
Media release: Doctors slam NSW Government’s proposed planning changes
February 5, 2020 - Doctors are demanding that the NSW Government abandons its bill to change the law so that the emissions from burning fossil fuels outside NSW no longer need to be taken ...
Leading international health groups issue joint statement calling for Siemens to #StopAdani
February 3, 2020 - Dear Mr Kaeser, As a company committed to health and sustainability, Siemens’ decision to provide rail signalling for the Adani coal mine is deeply disappointing. We, the undersigned, urge you ...
iNews: Australian doctor on ‘nerve-wracking’ wildfires and climate crisis: ‘You can taste it and I make sure my children stay indoors’
January 29, 2020 - Canberra Cardiologist, Dr Arnagretta Hunter, provides an insight into how the fires are impacting both her personal and professional worlds. From waiting for her family and friends and driving through ...
Letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison: “the leader who failed to lead on Climate Change.”
January 21, 2020 - To Scott Morrison, like everyone else in Australia, and increasingly around the world, I have spent the past couple of months in horrified disbelief at the scale of the bushfire ...
Newcastle Herald: Michael Schien writes, the real threat to national security is the way our system makes rational planning virtually impossible
January 17, 2020 - The climate emergency has arrived, writes Dr Michael Schien. With the first degree of the predicted four degrees of warming by 2100, this 11,000 kilometre fire front is stretching our ...
New Daily: Burning anxiety–The new normal isn’t just the fire, it’s the fear
January 13, 2020 - Speaking to The New Daily, psychiatrist Dr Robert Llewellyn-Jones and Honorary Secretary Dr Richard Yin highlight that climate change impacts such as Australia’s unprecedented fires not only have direct physical ...
Heatwaves and Health in Australia
January 3, 2020 - Heatwaves have been called ‘silent’ killers and, without reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, they are predicted to become more frequent, more intense and longer. DEA’s comprehensive fact sheet uses the ...
ABC’s World Today: Heatwave to hit record temperatures across Australia
December 18, 2019 - As Australians this week brace for a nationwide heatwave which could see temperatures approach 50 degrees in some areas, Dr Arnagretta Hunter says that while people have lived with such high ...
Medical Republic: Australia’s doctors raise their voices on climate change
December 4, 2019 - With the early start to our bushfire season, widespread fires burning across the country with tragic loss of life and property, and a number of areas breaking November heat records, ...
Response to Alexander Downer: how much are we prepared to pay for our children’s future?
November 27, 2019 - Alexander Downer, a former leader of the Liberal Party , Minister for Foreign Affairs and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, wrote in the Australian Financial Review last Monday (18 ...
Shadow Minister for Health: climate change must be a National Health Priority Area
November 20, 2019 - Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) welcomes the statements made by Shadow Minister for Health Chris Bowen that Australia needs to develop policies and structures to prepare for the health ...
Medical Forum bumper issue on doctors as climate change champions
November 4, 2019 - From letters to the editor to feature articles about doctors stepping out to join the School Strike for Climate, this month’s edition of Medical Forum shows DEA’s WA members are ...
Letter to the Editor: Media must let the truth prevail
October 25, 2019 - Is there no end to the contention by climate change sceptics, who report in The Australian, that action is useless and that adaptation will see us through? asks Dr John ...
The Armidale Express: Armidale GP Dr Sujata Allan explains why climate change is the century’s greatest health challenge
October 23, 2019 - Dr Sujata Allan says that in her practice, she has already seen the toll a warming planet has taken on her patients. She states there is widespread concern about global ...
The Canberra Times: Populate and perish; the fleeting hope of a population policy
October 14, 2019 - The Launch of the new Centre for Population raised a flicker of hope of a remit to develop a population policy for Australia – but the hope was fleeting, writes ...
Draft State Public Health Plan (SA) 2019-2024 (October 2018)
October 9, 2019 - DEA in South Australia has contributed to the South Australian Public Health Plan 2019-2024, building on our previous Submissions on the 2013 Plan and during Consultation on the new Plan. ...
Independent Australia: Morrison’s condescending response to kids and climate
September 30, 2019 - Climate change is difficult to ignore when medical authorities declare a climate health emergency, defence experts are concerned, insurance and business are sounding the alarm bells and children and their ...