Doctors can best contribute to environmental sustainability by their example and by working actively to change social norms
McDermott’s article in this issue of the Journal (The carbon footprints of obesity, chronic disease and population growth: four things doctors can do)1 calls doctors to arms, in the tradition of the famed 19th-century German pathologist Rudolf Virchow and today’s Medical Association for the Prevention of War, to contribute to a better world. Its writer draws attention to profound issues and is to be congratulated.
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- 1. McDermott RA. The carbon footprints of obesity, chronic disease and population growth: four things doctors can do. Med J Aust 2010; 192: 531-532. <eMJA full text>
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- 5. Meyerson FAB. Population, biodiversity, and human well-being. Front Ecol Environ 2009; 7: 511.
- 6. World Medical Association. Declaration of Delhi on health and climate change. http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/c5/index.html (accessed Mar 2010).
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- 9. Wilkinson RG, Pickett K. The spirit level: why more equal societies almost always do better. London: Penguin, 2009.
- 10. Goodell J. As the world burns. Rolling Stone, 2010. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31633532/as_the_world_burns (accessed Mar 2010).
- 11. Tait PW. New vision, new paradigm: health and wealth for all by 2100 — or for no one [editorial]. Med J Aust 2008; 188: 383-384. <MJA full text>
- 12. Szreter S. Economic growth, disruption, deprivation, disease and death: on the importance of the politics of public health. Popul Dev Rev 1997; 23: 693-728.
My thanks to Ben Ticehurst for helpful comments on this paper.
None identified.