Climate crisis endangers health
The climate crisis endangers health and the environment. The Doctors for Environmental Protection therefore plead for a YES to the Climate Protection Act.
"Prevention is the best and cheapest medicine and in this sense climate protection is also health protection," says Bernhard Aufdereggen, MD, President of Doctors for Environmental Protection (AefU). He and 236 physicians, dentists and veterinarians from all over Switzerland have therefore joined forces in the "Ärzt:innen-Komitee JA zum Klimaschutz-Gesetz am 18. Because: "With a YES to the climate protection law, we can mitigate a health threat on the coming voting weekend. We should seize this opportunity," says Aufdereggen.
A YES protects health
"Climate change is the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century," warns the World Health Organization (WHO). Global warming is causing sea levels to rise, directly threatening millions of people whose homes would be flooded. According to various scientists, the frequency and severity of extreme weather events - heat waves, droughts, floods, hurricanes and forest fires - are increasing, in some cases also in Switzerland. Because the permafrost is holding the mountains together less and less, there are more and more large landslides. These events posed a direct threat to physical and mental health.
Despite all the appeals and warnings, the CO2-emissions in Switzerland have risen again instead of falling, according to the AefU. This is fueling the climate crisis, the serious consequences of which are endangering health and livelihoods. Switzerland urgently needs a law with which it can keep its promise for climate protection.
Less air pollution
But gas, oil and coal are not only responsible for a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions. The combustion of these fossil fuels also pollutes the air - for example with particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. As a result, 2300 people in Switzerland die prematurely every year, mainly from chronic cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
"We can curb these threats to our health with a YES vote on the climate change bill," AefU writes in conclusion.
On June 8, the FMH Medical Association in Biel also voted in favor of the "Federal Law on Climate Protection Goals, Innovation and Strengthening Energy Security," which will be voted on June 18. A Yes
is a commitment to health protection, equal health opportunities and healthy lifestyles.
and intact environment (Arguments can be found here).
