Health professionals have announced they will join climate activists this weekend at the People’s Blockade of Newcastle coal port. They will spend 30 hours in canoes on the water, blocking shore access to all coal-carrying ships to the world’s largest coal port.
‘Coal is dangerous for human health,’ said Public Health Professor, Dr Linda Selvey. ‘Burning fossil fuels is driving climate change and climate change is a health emergency. We need to respond as we would in any emergency, and we are not.’
The blockading group will include public health and medical specialists, general practitioners, surgeons, nurses and allied health professionals, from around the country.
‘Coal combustion is a source of dangerous air pollution that kills millions of people prematurely each year,’ said GP Dr Sujata Allen. ‘Air pollution causes heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks and lung disease. This is an enormous public health issue.’
Greatest public health threat
Retired public health professor, Dr Peter Sainsbury, says ‘Climate change far exceeds any public health threat that I have seen in my 40 years as a public health doctor. We are running out of time to avert catastrophe. We need to act, in line with the science, immediately.’
Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) and Health on the Frontline (HOFL) both support medical professionals’ right to peaceful protest.
The two organisations say coal and gas are causing extensive harm to human health, with fossil fuels companies making immense profits while our planet warms, and governments allowing new coal mines and gas projects, despite knowing the harm they cause.
In light of this, they say it is completely understandable that concerned citizens protest to protect their own health and the health of our planet.
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