What 'Do No Harm' Means as Temperatures Soar
Medical workers are key to adapting to the realities of global heating, but they aren’t receiving the necessary training.
Photographer: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images
We trust doctors to be up to date with the latest developments in medical science. So it’s concerning that our future medical professionals aren’t being trained sufficiently or consistently on a very real threat to public health: climate change. With doctors and students alike raising the alarm, new initiatives such as the European Network on Climate & Health Education, or ENCHE, are springing up to more closely align medical practice with the climate crisis. But broader, structural changes need to follow swiftly.
ENCHE was launched last week by a group of 25 medical schools from 12 European countries including the UK, France and Germany. Led by the University of Glasgow, the network will be the first regional hub of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education (GCCHE) at Columbia University in New York.