Sunny Days Ahead — Perspectives on Global Health

By Amy Tang

This post is part of a series of opinion pieces in diverse mediums focusing on the theme “What makes you mad about global health?” These submissions are by McGill students who were part of the course PPHS 511 Fundamentals of Global Health in Fall 2021.

Explanation:

The inaction of global leaders concerning climate change causes entire populations to suffer while a few privileged individuals continue to reap profits without being held accountable for the damage they have done to our planet.

Climate change is an emerging concern in global health and one that cannot be addressed without the collaboration of countries worldwide. We share one planet, and although politics stop at national frontiers, the climate does not. The unsustainable exploitation of natural resources has led to irreversibly changes to the environment. Among other things, this manifests as extreme weather events that can further aggravate preexisting problems such as food insecurity and conflicts for inhabitable land as the scarcity of resources increases. Privileged individuals who have contributed the most to the current situation flee responsibility and, while global leaders fail to hold them accountable for their actions, vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected by natural disasters induced by human activity.

Evidence:

WMO, State of Climate in 2021: Extreme events and major impacts [Internet] 2021 [cited Nov 30th,2021] Available from: https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/state-of-climate2021-extreme-events-and-major-impacts
McGrath, M. Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity' [Internet] BBC News. 2021 [cited Nov 30th, 2021] Available from: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment58130705

Acknowledgments:

We would like to thank Professor Madhukar Pai for setting and sharing this assignment results with us and the teaching assistants Alexandra Jaye Zimmer, Lavanya Huria and Angie Sassi for their support in coordinating the results.