Planetary Health

HOW RAISING OUR VOICES CAN SAVE LIVES

Or: the story of how medical students brought the urgent health threat of the climate crisis into the Swiss medical association

Text: Bea Albermann | University of Zurich

While the climate and ecological crises are escalating, wars financed by fossil fuels keep on raging and human health is increasingly threatened, it’s important to share the good news: Our voices matter.

In October 2021, the Swiss medical chamber of the FMH adopted a new national strategy on planetary health. A strategy that never would have been written in the first place without the voices of engaged medical students all around Switzerland. Thanks to our ongoing advocacy efforts over the past three years, the climate crisis now slowly starts to be treated as what it really is: a health crisis. In fact, the Lancet even describes the climate crisis as the greatest existing threat to human health. Three years ago, we asked ourselves: How come, during six years of medical school, in some universities there is not a single mention of the health impacts of the climate crisis? And how can it be that the Swiss healthcare system is even contributing to harmful greenhouse gas emissions? Why would we maintain the status quo, if we thereby endanger the health of all current and future generations? And what if doctors became aware of their responsibility in this crisis, raised their voices and started to act?

Health Advocacy can be fun! Students engaged for Planetary Health all around Switzerland met in Bern in March 2022 ©Health For Future Switzerland

Instead of keeping those questions to ourselves, we – you might have guessed it by now – raised our voices. We wrote a policy paper on climate change and health1, which was adopted as the official opinion of Swiss medical students in November 2019. Health For Future groups kept growing in Geneva, Bern and Basel. The more voices asking for climate justice, the merrier, right? So we teamed up: we went to our “big sister” vsao|asmac, the Swiss organization for young doctors, and discussed possibilities on how this urgent issue could become a priority for Swiss doctors.

Together, in 2020 we wrote a proposal to the Swiss doctors’ chamber asking the FMH to acknowledge the health emergency imposed by the climate crisis and develop a strategy on possible action points of Swiss doctors. No sooner said than done. Our proposal got accepted and delegates from swimsa and vsao|asmac spent a whole year working together with the FMH and experts from the SwissTPH, discussing measures and strategic ways of how to promote planetary health and protect lives. It’s important to underline: This strategy is not perfect, it is a first small step, but it’s clearly not enough. The evidence of the latest IPCC report is overwhelming: the 1.5°C goal is of utmost importance and every +0.1°C degree warming will cause millions of preventable deaths. This is why swimsa urgently demands more consistent, effective measures. The net-zero target by 2030 and a transformation to a health-promoting, climate-neutral health system are top priorities. We can work together in an interdisciplinary way and activate existing leverage points as quickly as possible. It is up to all of us to raise our voices and act. When we do that, change is coming. And when we join forces, we become life savers. Want to become part of the lifesaving team? Join us on healthforfuture.ch or write to planetaryhealth@swimsa.ch.

During the COVID19-lockdown, health professionals and students all around Switzerland joined the digital strike for climate justice ©Health For Future Switzerland

I want to know more: What is Planetary Health?

"Planetary Health" is concerned with the interrelationships between human health and the social, economic and political systems, as well as the natural systems of our planet, on which the existence of human civilisation depends. Planetary Health thus describes a concept in which the health of the planet is of central importance as the basis of human health and all life. The concept uses synergy effects through a holistic view, for example by simultaneously stabilising the climate, protecting health and promoting a sustainable economy through the protection, preservation and improvement of the natural foundations of life.

Read the whole planetary health strategy of the FMH on fmh.ch in German or French.

1 swimsa: https://swimsa.ch/wp-content/ uploads/2021/06/swimsa_2019_Positionspapier-Climate-Change-and-Health_D.pdf 2 swimsa: https://swimsa.ch/wp-content/ uploads/2021/06/20200818_Healthy-Recovery-Manifesto_Finalisiert.pdf