Healthcare in the Anthropocene: Challenges and Opportunities.
We are entering the Anthropocene. So large is our impact on the planet that Earth scientists suggest our presence will show up in the geologic record far into the future. The global ecological changes we are creating pose a threat to health not only from climate change but from pollution and ecotoxicity, ocean acidification, resource depletion and the loss of biodiversity that threatens a sixth "Great Extinction." These health threats will impose an added burden on the healthcare system, while the ecological changes will force it to adapt to the new realities. The healthcare system contributes to these changes. It is an energy and resource-intensive part of society that also produces large volumes of solid and liquid wastes and air pollutants, some of them quite toxic; the system has a large ecological footprint; yet, at the same time, the system has an ethical duty to do no harm, and thus should be a leader in the transition to a more ecologically sustainable and healthier future.
Professor and senior scholar at the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria, BC. He has had a lifelong interest in the relationship between human and ecosystem health and was one of the co-founders of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care. Since 2012, he has been leading a Canadian Public Health Association workgroup looking at the public health implications of global ecological change. He can be reached at Thancock@uvic.ca.
Trevor
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Hancock
D002170:Canada; D058572:Carbon Footprint; D057231:Climate Change; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D011634:Public Health