by
Trevor Hancock
A coalition of health professionals recently rallied in Victoria, B.C., to declare a state of climate emergency in B.C. and lay out a plan for the transformative change that will improve the health of the people of B.C. – and the world beyond.
by
Doctors for Planetary Health – West Coast
As physicians, nurses, and other health professionals, we are already seeing the devastating impacts of climate and ecological crises. Here's what the B.C. government must do to transition to a sustainable, just, and healthy society at peace with nature.
by
Trevor Hancock
Canada has committed to developing climate-resilient, low-carbon health systems. But regrettably, Canada did not commit to creating a net-zero emissions health-care system. It's now up to provincial governments.
Poem: I was not born with a love of the planet
I was not born with a love of the planet,
Rather it was nurtured through time, through summers.
With childhoods of relentless joy,
Little feet waddling through tall grass.
Soft, cloudless days.
And cool, pleasant nights.
Three long months.
Growing alongside nature,
so too did our love of the earth.
And it loved us back, so, so dearly.
It cradled us, year-to-year, ever so kindly.
Guiding us gently into the terrains of adulthood.
But now summer is changing,
and with it our period of childhood reprieve fades.
It’s becoming heat and ashes.
It’s becoming pain and smoke.
Red sand turned red mountains.
Blue lakes turned blue puffers.
A season once where we lost fear,
is now one where we fear loss.
But we’re lucky
We still get glimpses of the summer we loved—
a reminder of childhood joy.
As this window closes, I fear deeply for the earth
Our children may only see a summer that plagues sorrow,
which is a summer that cannot nurture love.
And if not for love,
What do we fight for?
How do we save the planet?
With my memories of summer’s joy,
I raise my fist to a changing world.
To honor my love of the earth,
And to fight for the future whereby summer is not pain.
Kevin Liang is a resident physician in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) and Doctors for Planetary Health – West Coast.
This poem is exempted from Healthy Debate’s Creative Commons licence and cannot be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Healthy Debate.
Poem: The door opens
The door opens
of an unfamiliar car
on an unfamiliar road
a driver lulled to sudden sleep
by smoke and 47-degree heat
as trees ignite on the hillsides above
Three weeks later the sirens that woke her
still echo in her headaches and her dreams
The door opens
to an unfamiliar room
in an unfamiliar house
as he cries out in fitful rest
Usually the night cradles him in cool darkness
but the creaking floors are hot and so is he
the thrum of a fan exhaling across a melted ice pack
drowning out his mother’s fears that he, like she
is heat-sick
The door opens
to unfamiliar shouts
on an unfamiliar driveway
fire chief compressing and shocking an elder’s chest,
family desperately helpless
as neighbours draw their curtains
every truck gone
putting out the medical fires of a climate crisis
as 911 explodes in panic
The door opens
to an unfamiliar smell
in an unfamiliar apartment
heavy mustiness belying open windows
as she reclines lifeless in her rumpled sheets
the stream of Facebook likes and shares
silent
as brother frantically phones daughter
ten lives like hers snuffed out
every hour of this day
The door opens
to an unfamiliar scene
in an unfamiliar hospital
emergency army sprinting from room to room
sliding breathing tubes
past shiny vocal cords
as stretcher after stretcher
of seizing limbs and fibrillating hearts
rush towards them
And yet
The door opens
and it is our calling as healers
as guardians of health
to hold it open
to pay back our colonial debt
to the rightful stewards of this land
who have protected fish, trees and waters
since time immemorial
The door opens
to an unfamiliar sight
on unfamiliar streets
parents, children, rabbis, land defenders
marching upon hundreds of thousands
signs and voices aloft
singing, chanting, demanding climate justice
and a healthy future they and we
are dreaming into being
The doors are open
our minds are open
our hearts are open
and they will never close again.
Dr. Melissa Lem is a family physician, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia, and President-elect of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
This poem is exempted from Healthy Debate’s Creative Commons licence and cannot be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Healthy Debate.