Hopeful not helpless: How doctors are combating climate change

“Climate change is the greatest threat to human health we face right now,” says Hannah Chase, an FY1 doctor working in Oxford. “I don’t think there is a more appropriate and potentially effective group of people to communicate this than health professionals, including doctors.”

However, with so much climate doom, it can be hard to find the motivation to make changes. “I think if we say it’s hopeless then we’re doomed,” says London GP Jackie Applebee. “If you look at what’s happening to the climate, the heatwaves we’ve had this year, it’s not just something that’s coming. It’s here . . . We can’t afford to do nothing.”

But where to start? Doctors from the UK, Ireland, and US have shared their thoughts.