Health Care Without Harm Asia enjoins everyone, especially the health care sector, to support Pope Francis in his global appeal for immediate action to combat the degradation of the environment and human health.
All of us — governments, organizations, corporations, and individuals — must take responsibility to protect our surroundings and look beyond the impact of climate change on our own generation towards the future of our own children’s children.
“Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it.”
As mentioned by the Pope, the issue of waste and pollution has become a daily experience for many, as “Each year hundreds of millions of tons of waste are generated, much of it non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive, from homes and businesses, from construction and demolition sites, from clinical, electronic and industrial sources. The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”
He clearly denounced throwaway culture and our over-dependence on technology by resorting to quick but dangerous solutions such as incineration and waste-to-energy. We laud the Pope for imploring everyone to change the lifestyle of production and consumption by emphasizing the need to adopt “a circular model of production” in order to preserve resources for present and future generations by promoting the habit of re-using, reducing, and recycling.
“The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all.”
We thank His Holiness for urging world leaders to develop policies that will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, especially coal, towards climate-friendly and healthier energy alternatives and for calling out on those who are trying to downplay its ill effects.
He said, “Many of those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms, simply making efforts to reduce some of the negative impacts of climate change.” Clearly, more concrete steps are yet to be taken in order to transition to healthier energy.
Fossil fuel is not only doing tremendous damage to the environment, it is also a serious threat to the health of the human population. Coal affects the health of human populations - both indirectly through climate change, which has its own array of ill health effects, and directly through its emissions that lead to air and water pollution.
We hope that through the Pope’s clear and firm statement on climate change, all of us will accept the challenge to take up arms against climate change and be part of a "bold cultural revolution” for the health of both human beings and the environment.