A Medical Emergency Response for Today’s Global Climate Change Emergency"WE HAVE REACHED A POINT OF PLANETARY EMERGENCY...." "This is an emergency and ... we need emergency action." "The question now is whether we can avoid catastrophic interference." _________________________________________ LEVEL OF THE PLANETARY EMERGENCY July 9, 2009 - The Group of Eight (G8) countries has committed to a limit on global warming of 2 degrees Celsius. They agreed that their emissions should be cut by 80 per cent or more by 2050 compared to "1990 or more recent years." This so-called commitment to a 2ºC global warming limit commits all future generations to certain global climate catastrophe. The delay of any significant emissions reductions until 2050 is a prescription for catastrophe, while switching to a post-1990 baseline instead of the standard 1990 base is a severe blow to the chances for the future survival of humanity. _________________________________________ "The potential for runaway greenhouse warming is real and has never been more clear." Global climate change and other ongoing persistent global environmental problems "threaten humanity's very survival.... The need couldn’t be more urgent ... to act now to safeguard our own survival and that of future generations." "Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Effects of climate change on health will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk." "Unless decisive action is taken now, the world will face global public health and environmental catastrophe. We believe that the health and healthcare community can, and must, spearhead a major movement for change." "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."
We are on track for over six degrees of global warming, which constitutes a climate change emergency and a threat to the very survival of humanity.
The latest science shows that the world is in an unprecedented
TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR SAFEGUARDING HUMANITY Doctors and other health care professionals have a vital role to play
The declaration of this planetary climate change emergency and summons to a global emergency response would naturally come first from the health professions. What are our concerns? In a nutshell, nations have been talking for over 15 years, the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 and its successor was to have been signed in Copenhagen in December 2009, but there is still no sign of any solid agreement, commitment or action to prevent the increasing risk of catastrophe. Only an international declaration of a state of global climate change emergency can be expected to rapidly rectify this situation, by leading to a concerted international emergency response to rescue all future generations.
The worst risks from global warming are still not included in global negotiations, greatly increasing the risks to human survival. Nations are targeting a 2ºC global warming, which according to the latest science is disastrous and invites catastrophe. (More...) It is CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE's mission to help healthcare professionals in remedying this situation. The world needs policies and planning based on the avoidance of any risk of irreversible, catastrophic climate change tipping points. This site therefore addresses the worst risks as well as the worst predicted impacts. (More...) Why the urgency? With the rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere accelerating, with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increasing at an accelerating rate, with carbon feedbacks adding to greenhouse gas emissions in the Arctic, and with methane emitting from the ocean into the atmosphere off the coasts of Siberia and Norway, the risk of passing irreversible, catastrophic tipping points now exists. (More...) In December 2008, nations met in Poznan, Poland to negotiate an agreement to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol in order to implement the terms of the 1992 UN Framework Climate Change Convention (FCCC). No agreement was signed at the December 2009 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. Industrialized and industrializing nations continue to block the way to an agreement that would prevent catastrophic global climate change, claiming there is no definition of dangerous climate change, and not acknowledging the emergency. CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE is working to enable the addition of essential medical input to rescue the Climate Change Convention and the future of humanity. Medical debate about global warming has so far emphasised planning and response. It is therefore timely that we draw a parallel to medical involvement in the nuclear weapons disarmament movement in the 1980s.... — Dr. Richard F. Kefford, Professor of Medicine CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE assists in building a global voice of health care professionals who are determined to ensure a healthy and habitable planet for future generations — of all species. The emergency medical responses suggested in this website are based on
What's the first step? Click on the Climate Change Emergency button below for immediate action steps, or on a link below or to the left to learn about the risks and to see how doctors and other health care professionals can take action on global climate change at the international level.
For more information, visit or Global Catastrophe — The Race to Fossil Fuel Oblivion
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