Medical Schools Declare
What we‘re doing, why we’re doing it, and what’s next…
What is Medical Schools Declare?
Medical Schools Declare was set up by a group of medical students with the explicit goal of getting all UK Medical Schools to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency before COP26.
What have we done?
Over the past months a team of medical students from different UK medical school’s have worked hard writing, discussing, and researching to finalise a joint declaration.
We’re lucky to have had help along the way from Health Declares, the Planetary Health Report Card Initiative, and the Medical School’s Council.
The finalised declaration has been distributed to medical students nationwide and delivered in the form of an invitation to every GMC recognised Medical School in the country.
Can we read The Declaration?
Sure!
As UK medical schools, we are coming together to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency. Without a change of course, we are at risk of a major health crisis over the coming decades.
By accelerating our transition to a low-carbon economy and utilising green technologies we can protect our families, economy, and healthcare system, creating a safer and healthier world for everyone.
COVID-19 has spread across the globe and taken the lives of patients and colleagues, leaving behind families and teams that will never be the same without them. Like COVID-19, climate change is a global crisis that has the potential to get much worse very quickly. If we are to learn one lesson from COVID-19, it is that we must act early to avoid losing control of the impacts on our health and economy. Positive feedback loops are already accelerating the rate of warming, and narrowing our window of opportunity to respond.
Our health depends on protecting our climate: we must act now.
We must accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy and stop adding carbon-dioxide to our atmosphere. If not, the effects of climate change will increasingly threaten lives and livelihoods and compromise the hospitals and clinics we depend on. We are all at risk from extreme weather, food and water insecurity, and changing patterns of infectious diseases, with those who live in deprived or precarious circumstances most likely to be affected. We are also at risk of major disruption at a societal level, with impacts on wellbeing, jobs, and economies, all of which affect health.
The UK’s target of net-zero by 2050 gives us only a 50% chance of avoiding the rise in global temperatures that will lead to disaster2. The Paris Climate Agreement of 2016 aimed to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5°C but we are not on track to meet that target. We must be much more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions as rapidly as possible.
We can look after each other and create a safer, fairer, and healthier world. As medical schools, we are committed to being a part of this change.
The Climate and Ecological Emergency is a Health Emergency.
Why would Medical Schools declare?
At medical school, everything we are taught, everything we do, and everything we experience, is in preparation for looking after people’s health upon graduation.
When we look forward to this life of looking after people, we cannot ignore the impact Climate Change may have on the health of the people we serve.
If we truly want to be able to look back and say that we did everything we could to look after our patients, we have to acknowledge the science that suggests that our patients health will be negatively impacted by climate change.
By making a public declaration, Medical Schools are signalling to everyone that more must be done in order to look after our nation’s health, our neighbour’s health, and the health of our living world.
If we ignore the reality of Climate Change,
we are ignoring the health impacts too.
What next?
Although every medical school has been invited to join and to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency, not every medical school has responded.
So far we’ve collected the signatures of the following medical schools:
University College London Medical School
Queen’s University Belfast School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences
University of Nottingham Medical School
University of Warwick Medical School
University of Keele School of Medicine
University of Cambridge School of Medicine
St George’s University of London
Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia
University of Oxford Medical School
Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Newcastle University School of Medical Education
Swansea University Medical School
However, we’re yet to hear from over 20 medical schools around the country.
Whether you’re a doctor, student, or alumnus, we need your help to achieve our goal of uniting all UK Medical Schools on this joint declaration.
We’re asking you to use the hashtag #JoinTheDeclaration on twitter to encourage your Medical School to join today.
The Climate and Ecological Emergency threatens the lives and livelihoods of everybody and time is running out.
As future healthcare professionals - we care about the future of health.
Let’s protect human health, together.
Remember to tag your medical school on twitter and use the hashtag #JoinTheDeclaration to get involved.
We believe in a brighter future, do you?
