Hitherto, climate change had
been characterized primarily as a matter of science and political economy
wherein the latter was lagging behind the former. As the ongoing accumulating
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the oceans were finally having a
significant impact on the planet and us in the mid-2020s, breaking the grip of
the oil industry and the related consumer demand for fossil-fuel energy proved
to be too much for the UN’s annual “COP” summits because any agreements at them
were nonbinding on governments. So at the commencement of the COP31 summit on
November 9, 2026, the UN’s Climate Change Executive Secretary adroitly shifted
the characterization of climate change to one of health, and more specifically
healthcare systems—something presumably more manageable. Unfortunately, the
focus on health put symptoms and effects ahead of addressing the causes of
global warming.
The full essay is at "Climate Change as a Threat to Healthcare Systems."
