Posted on 02/11/2019 11:34:41 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Our health system is already overburdened, and extreme climate change could put it over the edge. And it will unfortunately be our most vulnerable communities - low income communities, communities of color, and places where health care is already hard to come by - who will suffer the worst consequences.
As a fourth-year medical student, Ive learned plenty about caring for patients with common illnesses and injuries. But as a native of fire-ravaged Northern California, and a student in Pennsylvania - where I hear regularly about communities torn apart by the natural gas industry - I cant help but worry about my ability to care for my patients in an age of climate change.
Climate change isnt just an environmental crisis, after all. Its a looming health crisis. More hurricanes, floods, droughts, and wildfires means more disease, dehydration, famine, injury, and death.
Our health system is already overburdened, and extreme climate change could put it over the edge. And it will unfortunately be our most vulnerable communities - low income communities, communities of color, and places where health care is already hard to come by - who will suffer the worst consequences.
While my medical schools curriculum encourages deep thinking about how to expand health care for underserved communities, its included little if any acknowledgement of the coming climate catastrophe.
Some medical colleges are beginning to wake up to the need to prepare the future generation of physicians to handle these challenges, and more colleges are joining this critical effort each day. For example, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recently launched a Climate Change Curriculum Infusion Project, which seeks to prepare future physicians by weaving the impacts of climate change on health into existing medical curriculum.
We know that climate change is real, manmade, and accelerating far beyond what researchers originally predicted. Its not up for debate. There are countless studies to back that up - including the Special Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the 2018 Global Climate Report, and the Fourth National Climate Assessment, to name a few.
We didnt create this pending catastrophe - an overzealous, greedy fossil fuel industry did. But my generation will have to bear the consequences of their recklessness, and a whole generation of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals will have to care for those who suffer.
As the data rolls in, we understand that climate change has already begun to make permanent changes to our world - and that only rapid, sweeping changes to our energy system and environmental policies will even begin to mitigate the damage.
The truth is were moving too slow. Under the current U.S. administration, were in fact moving in the wrong direction if we hope to minimize this looming health crisis. We need to commit to zero emissions and an overhaul of our energy system to renewables - yesterday.
Whatever happens on the policy front, health professionals need to be ready for the disruptions we know are coming.
Medical colleges are in a unique position, and have a distinct obligation, to prepare future generations of physicians for the challenge of a lifetime. Medical students need our educators to help us - not only to prepare our medical practice, but to take leadership in pushing for the sweeping policy changes required to avert the worst consequences of this impending disaster.
We need everyone to wake up and see that if we dont act boldly now, well have a crisis too big for our system to handle - and too much for any budding physicians hands to hold.
Autumn Vogel is a fourth-year medical student at Penn State College of Medicine and a student representative on the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Hey, twit!
According to the study published by Johns Hopkins (not Perv U., er, Penn State) back in 2016, MEDICAL ERRORS are now the third leading cause of death in the country.
We didnt create this actual catastrophe - an overzealous, greedy health-care industry did. But my generation will have to bear the consequences of their recklessness, and a whole generation of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals will profit from those who suffer.
There, fixed it for ya...
This imbecile has made PSU look very bad but not all students and graduates are this retarded. This is the prototype new green order government doctor under the AOC plan.
Your patients problem is he has you for a doctor!!!
Just what we need, another holier than thou, close minded know it all in a position of authority.
“Climate change isnt just an environmental crisis, after all. Its a looming health crisis. More hurricanes, floods, droughts, and wildfires means more disease, dehydration, famine, injury, and death.”
She speaks as a “true believer” of some “religious scripture espousing some absolute” truth, about the climate, and not as someone who is educated or getting an education.
There is no increase of hurricanes or floods, and a good amount of the recent wild fires - like in Northern California, have causes in bad human management of forests as much as anything else. And which recent “famine” is she referring to, other than in some conflict zone?
She has been “taught” - indoctrinated, into a BELIEF that all natural calamities are caused by “climate change”.
Yep. I’m always grateful when people I may have to trust with my, or a loved one’s life or well-being, leave clues to their thought processes,values and judgment. These are factors that cannot, imho, be divorced from the science of medicine without consequence.
I cant help but worry about my ability to care for my patients in an age of climate change....
She already has the “I’m the doctor and you’re the stupid patient” thing down pat.
That was my reaction, as well. NO WAY would I consider going to this person for professional medical services.
OTOH, she’ll probably practice med for a couple years, then run for Senate or something and get elected in a liberal state.
In Washington state, Bellingham got hit with a natural gas line explosion, oh, I want to say ten years ago. Killed two boys playing in the woods. We also had a building explode in the Seattle Greenwood neighborhood.
I guess we’ve been blessed to avoid the bands of natural gas refugees that seem to plague the rest of the country.
Of course, this woman is just a rote meat puppet regurgitating her masters’ programming. The scary thing is, the leftists are going after clean, abundant natural gas. Our supplies could keep the U.S. going for centuries. It shows they’re hard core about putting us Proles back into the stone age.
The child is very vocal and thinks she knows everything. Worse, she puts in on the internet. If she is lucky now, she’ll find a residency. She is in for a difficult time with coworkers. I’ll take a bet she won’t complete those four years.
From the same fine institution that brought us professional climate hoaxster Professor Mark Mann.
Remember the name. Don’t let any doctor named Autumn Vogel treat anyone you love.
IF this kid had been in Jonestown, he would have been drinking the first glass of Kool Aid.
“Worried”?
I would be bolting out the door.
Someone needs to do their ancestry & see how their ancestors lived-—when horses & oxen were called TRANSPORTATION. And when they were no longer useful, they were called DINNER.
I sure would like to spend a few hours with this nitwit & show her how many ways ‘fossil fuels’ enhance her daily life.
As my dear Mother used to say, some People are so smart, they’re stupid.
Fourth Year Medical Student? Please Lord, make sure I never run into this insipid Woman.
I understand that motive but that article was pure drivel.
and a student representative on the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility. ..because I, like other FReepers I'm sure, choose my physicians based upon their Social Justice Bonafides, not their actual medical acumen. "Yes, I know that I'm bleeding out, but could you let me look over your social media accounts? And, do you have any Socially Responsible references?"
Fresh water....
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