Eleven medical societies — which together represent more than 400,000 physicians — formed a consortium Wednesday dedicated to educating policymakers and the public on how climate change is impacting population health.
The group was formed after the American Public Health Association found in a series of surveys that physicians are already witnessing negative effects of climate change on patient health. The Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health was unveiled at a public event in Washington, D.C., Wednesday morning. As part of the event, the group released data illustrating how climate change is negatively affecting health.
The group has five core beliefs:
1. Human-caused climate change is real and 97 percent of climate scientists back these findings.
2. Physicians and public health professionals have witnessed the impacts of climate change on public health through increases in heat-related illnesses, chronic illness, injuries and deaths from weather, infectious diseases and illnesses from contaminated food and water.
3. Climate change poses a greater risk to the health of some populations more than others.
4. Action must be taken as soon as possible.
5. The best first course of action is to accelerate the transition to clean renewable energy.
The following medical societies are part of the consortium:
- American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- Allergy Asthma & Immunology
- National Medical Association
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Academy of Family Physicians
- American College of Physicians
- American College of Preventive Medicine
- American Medical Associations
- American Podiatric Medical Association
- Infectious Diseases Society of America
- Society of General Internal Medicine
- American Geriatrics Society
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