Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 122, Issue 7, July 2008, Pages 653-656
Public Health

Minisymposium
Climate change and rising energy costs: A threat but also an opportunity for a healthier future?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2008.03.019Get rights and content

Summary

Health problems caused by overconsumption, growing inequalities and diminished well-being are issues that have been attributed to the prioritization of economic growth as the central purpose of society. It is also known that climate change and rising energy prices will inevitably bring changes to the globe's economic models. Doctors and the wider public health community have campaigned successfully in the past on issues such as the threat of nuclear war. Is it now time for this constituency to make its distinctive contribution to these new threats to health?

Section snippets

Economic growth as a historical driver of health improvement

In the early stages of industrialization, economic growth and health have grown in parallel. Greater wealth leads to better health, but improved health also contributes to economic growth.1 Various mechanisms have been proposed for this association, including better nutrition as a result of the agricultural revolution,2 improved sanitation and public infrastructure,3 and the creation of welfare systems and local government.4 This historical association is strengthened by evidence from occasions

What is driving current concerns about economic growth?

There is concern about economic growth for two reasons. First, economic growth associated with rising consumerism, individualism and economism damages our sense of well-being and the cohesion of our society.7, 8 Second, economic growth is not sustainable in a finite planet that is showing the detrimental impact of exponential growth in the consumption of energy and resources.9 The question is, are these concerns justified, and what is the most appropriate response?

Ideally, a public health

Well-being

Since the mid-1970s, increased economic growth in the USA, Europe and Australasia has not been accompanied by commensurate improvement in well-being.12, 13 Despite the difficulties in defining, measuring and providing its historical trends, it has become clear that well-being has not improved substantially in the developed world for at least 25 years, and may even be declining.

There are various hypotheses linking this stasis or decline in well-being to the effects of economic growth and the

Inequalities

Inequalities in both the determinants and outcomes of health have always been present in society, but have grown during recent decades in developed countries, and now appear to be accelerating (Fig. 2).20

Whilst there remains debate about the mechanisms through which inequalities limit health,21 three facets of this argument are difficult to refute. First, income inequality drives health inequality.22 Second, income and health inequalities have increased during the long recent growth trends of

Conclusion

Clearly, much of life will go on as before. People will get sick and some will require hospital care. Screening and other programmes will continue. However, all of these will be subject to diminishing returns when considered against the challenges of sustainability. Other activities such as the expansion of airports simply need to be put into reverse.32 This is more than a new approach to health. It is a new approach to life, but those reading this paper have a distinctive contribution to make.

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