Season 4
Environment
If healthcare worldwide were a country - it would be the 5th biggest greenhouse gas emitter. Climate change’s impact on physical health is obvious - but have we considered ways in which healthcare impacts the environment?
Together with @theweirdandwild in this series, we talk to individuals from science, architecture, psychology, and community organising to unpack the ways we can begin to see that our responsibilities to our patients are not limited to the immediate, but extend to the planet at large.
Season Introduction
By Qiyun @TheWeirdandWild
Season Episodes
In this episode, we interview Ar Jerry Ong, architect with CPG Consultants, in a special collaboration with The Weird and Wild. Mr Ong shares with us his goals and responsibility as an architect to create a healing environment in his design. He also emphasises the importance of sustainable design, and discusses the multiple aspects in consideration when designing a healthcare infrastructure project.
In this episode, in a special collaboration with Qi Yun from The Weird and Wild, we interview Victoria Haldane from Planetary Health Alliance who is also the co-president and cofounder of Emerging Leaders for Environmental Sustainability in Healthcare (ELESH). Planetary Health Alliance is an organisation that seeks to stimulate conversations about planetary and human health. We talk about the importance of planetary health and urgency for action. Finally, we explore how medical students and clinicians alike can take action in promoting planetary health.
Associate Professor Jason Lee, deputy Director of the Human Potential Translational Research Programme at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, shares his perspectives on tackling heat stress. In the first episode, he emphasizes the important concepts in heat stress and clarifies some common misunderstandings about heat stress. In the second episode, he shares about Project HeatSafe, a collaborative research project that is geared towards mitigating the impacts of rising temperatures in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, he compellingly shares his ideas on how collective individual and medical practitioner’ efforts could make a change in heat stress related environmental issues.
In this episode, we interview Pats Oliva from Health Care Without Harm to learn more about the organisation’s goal and how they are working to reduce the healthcare industry’s adverse impact on climate. We explore a few projects Health Care Without Harm has spear-headed, and discuss how communities and individuals can play a part in reducing healthcare's role in climate change.
Professor Warwick Anderson, professor of History at University of Sydney, talks about planetary health and how colonialism shapes the practice and system of medicine. He shared with us about his recent projects on planetary health, how human health is intimately interrelated with the health of our planet, and why medical professionals are perfect advocates for climate change.
In this episode, we interview Dr Denise Dillon, Associate Professor in Psychology at James Cook University, in a special collaboration with The Weird and Wild. Prof Dillon sheds light on eco-anxiety and how it could affect us in the near future. She also explains to us why we are resistant to act on climate change while discussing the importance of our environment in healing.
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