Keep it in the Ground - An open letter to the health sector from student doctors
As future doctors we call on the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to remove their investments from fossil fuel companies. We share a responsibility to our future patients to address unmitigated climate change – described as “the biggest health threat of the 21st century”[1] – and to advocate for a transition to a healthier, more sustainable economy. The British Medical Association has already divested and many other medical and health organisations are following suit. Continued investment in the fossil fuel industry violates health workers’ obligations to do no harm and grants the industry the social licence to explore and exploit still further reserves, resulting in catastrophic global warming.
80% of currently listed fossil fuel reserves must remain unburned to keep surface temperature warming below 2C above pre-industrial levels.[2] Climate change threatens health both directly through frequent flooding, heatwaves and natural disasters,[3] and indirectly by worsening food insecurity,[4] conflict,[5] and mental health.[6] Fossil fuels also directly harm workers and local communities throughout their lifecycle by toxic exposures, air pollution and local environmental degradation.[7] A transition to renewable energy generation and low-carbon, active transport would protect millions worldwide from cardiovascular, respiratory, and other diseases.[8]
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Thirty years ago, health professionals declared that investments in the tobacco industry violated their responsibility to protect and promote health. They triggered a wave of divestment that played a significant role in the tobacco control movement’s subsequent successes.[9,10] The threat to public health posed by fossil fuels is even greater, but fossil fuel companies – just like the tobacco industry – continue to fund the subversion of scientific research into climate change and legislation directed at its mitigation.[11] The arguments that led the health sector to divest from tobacco provide a still more compelling mandate for divestment from fossil fuels. We call on the Wellcome Trust and Gates Foundation to divest from the fossil fuel industry and show the leadership we, as future health professionals, need to bring about a healthier, more sustainable economy.
Signed, |
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Agostinho Sousa, President, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA)
James Lawler, President, Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA)
Christopher Charles, VP for Global Health, Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS)
Lucas Scherdel, National Director, Medsin-UK
Alice McGushin, Code Green Project Manager, AMSA
Maud Taylor, Student Representative, Doctors for the Environment Australia
Carmen Hayward, Student Representative, Doctors for the Environment Australia
Wenzhen Zuo, National Coordinator for Global Health, IFMSA-Québec
Eleanor Dow, National Coordinator, Healthy Planet UK
Mustafa Uğur Özel, SCORA LGBTI Coordinator, TurkMSIC*
Torunn Hjøllo, National Exchange Officer, Norwegian Medical Students' Association*
Imtiaz Hafiz, National Officer on Medical Education, Bangladesh Medical Students' Association*
Pool Aguilar Léon, National Director of SCORE, IFMSA-Perú*
Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, VP for External Affairs, IFMSA*
Clarissa Soh, Code Green Officer, Western Australia Medical Students' Association
Kelly Lau, VP Global Health, McGill Medical Students' Association*
Shang-Jung Hsieh, Alumni Coordinator, FMS-Taiwan*
Camille Pelletier Vernooy, President, IFMSA-Québec*
Alistair Wardrope, National Coordinator, Healthy Planet UK
Suleman Atique, Taipei Medical University
Vijendra Ingole, Umea University
Nathan Cantley, Queens University Belfast
Charlotte Holm-Hansen, University of Copenhagen
Matteo Dameri, University of Genova
Trabelsi Souha, FMT
Racha Tochme, University of Balamand
Anneleen Boel, University of Ghent
Fabian Falkenbach, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Robin Dru, St George's, University of London
Karen Zhang, Monash University
Natasha Abeysekera, University of Tasmania
Paul Thuesen, University of Wollongong
Amanda Zhou, University of New South Wales
Bryan Tan, Monash University
Steve Pan, University of Notre Dame
Thomas Luckman, University of Tasmania
Molly Wilkinson, University of Notre Dame
Georgia Diebold, University of New South Wales
Jon Herriot, University of Saskatchewan
Katelyn Tadd, University of Melbourne
Gabrielle Fernandez, University of Queensland
Isabelle Bruneau, Université de Montréal
Madeleine Payne, University of Edinburgh
Ryan Forrest, University of Edinburgh
Alexander Lewis Wade, University of Edinburgh
Roshni Patel, University College London
Cameron Stocks, Trustee, Medsin-UK*
Marcus Hollyer, University of Edinburgh
Colin Irving, University of Edinburgh
Peter Eves, University of Edinburgh
Helen Zhang, University of New South Wales
Alisha Patel, University of East Anglia
Nina Nguyen, University of Sherbrooke
Isobel Braithwaite, University College London
*Signing in a personal capacity
References
1. Costello, A. et al. Managing the health effects of climate change. The Lancet 373, 1693–1733 (2009).
2. McGlade, C. & Ekins, P. The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2 °C. Nature 517, 187–190 (2015).
3. DARA. Climate vulnerability monitor: a guide to the cold calculus of a hot planet. (DARA, 2012).
4. Baldos, U. L. C. & Hertel, T. W. Global food security in 2050: The role of agricultural productivity and climate change. Aust. J. Agric. Resour. Econ. (2014). at <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8489.12048/full>
5. Kelley, C. P., Mohtadi, S., Cane, M. A., Seager, R. & Kushnir, Y. Climate change in the Fertile Crescent and implications of the recent Syrian drought. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 112, 3241–3246 (2015).
6. Berry, H. L., Bowen, K. & Kjellstrom, T. Climate change and mental health: a causal pathways framework. Int. J. Public Health 55, 123–132 (2010).
7. Smith, K. R. et al. Energy and Human Health. Annu. Rev. Public Health 34, 159–188 (2013).
8. Haines, A. & Dora, C. How the low carbon economy can improve health. BMJ 344, e1018–e1018 (2012).
9. Ansar, A., Caldecott, B. & Tilbury, J. Stranded assets and the fossil fuel campaign: what does divestment mean for the valuation of fossil fuel assets?. (Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, 2013). at <http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/research/stranded-assets/SAP-divestment-report-final.pdf>
10. Smith, E. A. & Malone, R. E. Thinking the ‘unthinkable’: why Philip Morris considered quitting. Tob. Control 12, 208–213 (2003).
11. Oreskes, N. & Conway, E. M. Merchants of doubt: how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. (Bloomsbury, 2012).
James Lawler, President, Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA)
Christopher Charles, VP for Global Health, Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS)
Lucas Scherdel, National Director, Medsin-UK
Alice McGushin, Code Green Project Manager, AMSA
Maud Taylor, Student Representative, Doctors for the Environment Australia
Carmen Hayward, Student Representative, Doctors for the Environment Australia
Wenzhen Zuo, National Coordinator for Global Health, IFMSA-Québec
Eleanor Dow, National Coordinator, Healthy Planet UK
Mustafa Uğur Özel, SCORA LGBTI Coordinator, TurkMSIC*
Torunn Hjøllo, National Exchange Officer, Norwegian Medical Students' Association*
Imtiaz Hafiz, National Officer on Medical Education, Bangladesh Medical Students' Association*
Pool Aguilar Léon, National Director of SCORE, IFMSA-Perú*
Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, VP for External Affairs, IFMSA*
Clarissa Soh, Code Green Officer, Western Australia Medical Students' Association
Kelly Lau, VP Global Health, McGill Medical Students' Association*
Shang-Jung Hsieh, Alumni Coordinator, FMS-Taiwan*
Camille Pelletier Vernooy, President, IFMSA-Québec*
Alistair Wardrope, National Coordinator, Healthy Planet UK
Suleman Atique, Taipei Medical University
Vijendra Ingole, Umea University
Nathan Cantley, Queens University Belfast
Charlotte Holm-Hansen, University of Copenhagen
Matteo Dameri, University of Genova
Trabelsi Souha, FMT
Racha Tochme, University of Balamand
Anneleen Boel, University of Ghent
Fabian Falkenbach, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Robin Dru, St George's, University of London
Karen Zhang, Monash University
Natasha Abeysekera, University of Tasmania
Paul Thuesen, University of Wollongong
Amanda Zhou, University of New South Wales
Bryan Tan, Monash University
Steve Pan, University of Notre Dame
Thomas Luckman, University of Tasmania
Molly Wilkinson, University of Notre Dame
Georgia Diebold, University of New South Wales
Jon Herriot, University of Saskatchewan
Katelyn Tadd, University of Melbourne
Gabrielle Fernandez, University of Queensland
Isabelle Bruneau, Université de Montréal
Madeleine Payne, University of Edinburgh
Ryan Forrest, University of Edinburgh
Alexander Lewis Wade, University of Edinburgh
Roshni Patel, University College London
Cameron Stocks, Trustee, Medsin-UK*
Marcus Hollyer, University of Edinburgh
Colin Irving, University of Edinburgh
Peter Eves, University of Edinburgh
Helen Zhang, University of New South Wales
Alisha Patel, University of East Anglia
Nina Nguyen, University of Sherbrooke
Isobel Braithwaite, University College London
*Signing in a personal capacity
References
1. Costello, A. et al. Managing the health effects of climate change. The Lancet 373, 1693–1733 (2009).
2. McGlade, C. & Ekins, P. The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2 °C. Nature 517, 187–190 (2015).
3. DARA. Climate vulnerability monitor: a guide to the cold calculus of a hot planet. (DARA, 2012).
4. Baldos, U. L. C. & Hertel, T. W. Global food security in 2050: The role of agricultural productivity and climate change. Aust. J. Agric. Resour. Econ. (2014). at <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8489.12048/full>
5. Kelley, C. P., Mohtadi, S., Cane, M. A., Seager, R. & Kushnir, Y. Climate change in the Fertile Crescent and implications of the recent Syrian drought. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 112, 3241–3246 (2015).
6. Berry, H. L., Bowen, K. & Kjellstrom, T. Climate change and mental health: a causal pathways framework. Int. J. Public Health 55, 123–132 (2010).
7. Smith, K. R. et al. Energy and Human Health. Annu. Rev. Public Health 34, 159–188 (2013).
8. Haines, A. & Dora, C. How the low carbon economy can improve health. BMJ 344, e1018–e1018 (2012).
9. Ansar, A., Caldecott, B. & Tilbury, J. Stranded assets and the fossil fuel campaign: what does divestment mean for the valuation of fossil fuel assets?. (Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, 2013). at <http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/research/stranded-assets/SAP-divestment-report-final.pdf>
10. Smith, E. A. & Malone, R. E. Thinking the ‘unthinkable’: why Philip Morris considered quitting. Tob. Control 12, 208–213 (2003).
11. Oreskes, N. & Conway, E. M. Merchants of doubt: how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. (Bloomsbury, 2012).
