Victorian Nurses and Midwives turn out in droves for Environmental Health Conference There was a large turnout in Melbourne in March when the Victorian branch of Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF “ Vic) held their second interdisciplinary conference about health and environmental sustainability. Nurses, midwives and sustainability - we're all in this together It was great to see so many nurses in Victoria being involved and showing their support and understanding of the connection between environmental issues and health....

By Fiona Armstrong Published by the ABC on 28 Feb 2014 The Abbott government needs to shed its mindless opposition to carbon pricing and embrace a policy that actually has a chance of addressing climate change, unlike Direct Action. The Abbot Government's policy for addressing climate change, the Direct Action Plan, is currently undergoing public scrutiny via a Senate Inquiry into the policy. More specifically the Inquiry will look into whether the plan is a "failure to systematically address climate...

Greening the healthcare sector: Policy Think Tank The annual CAHA - AHHA think tank on sustainability on the health care sector is coming up - this time it's in Melbourne on 30th August 2013. Join us to hear about what's happening in this dynamic space, share your experiences, and to be part of driving change towards healthier greener healthcare in Australia. This exciting event will feature international speaker Dr Blair Sadler from the University of California and the successful Healthier...

The Climate and Health Alliance is involved in THREE events at the 2013 Melbourne Sustainable Living Festival: Climate and Health Clinic - all weekend Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th February Roving ˜health promoters' will help people develop their own individualised ˜prescriptions for a healthy life and a health planet'. The clinic and ˜prescriptions' provide opportunities for people to learn about sustainable lifestyles are healthy lifestyles and how cutting emissions can improve health. Some strategies people can choose for their own...

Health Must Be Central to Climate Action The international health and medical community have developed a joint statement on climate health and wellbeing calling for health to be central to national and global climate action. Signatories include the World Medical Association, the International Council of Nurses, International Federation of Medical Students, Health Care Without Harm, Climate and Health Alliance, European Public Health Association, Public Health Association of Australia, Royal College of General Practitioners (UK), Climate and Health Council, OraTaiao: The...

The proposal for a fourth coal terminal at Newcastle has united local residents in a joint effort to protect community and workers' health. Community members are deeply concerned about the impact of coal dust from the proposed terminal. Health experts visited the city earlier this year to talk about the danger of coal dust. Between 1984 and 2012 coal exports from Newcastle increased ten-fold from 21 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 210 Mtpa. The proposed fourth terminal (T4) would...

Climate change, chronic disease, deforestation, obesity, corporate power, food insecurity, and government policy stalemates - all reflect the failure of our current systems to deal with core challenges in modern societies. What are the remedies for healthy, sustainable societies? Attended by public health and climate researchers, practitioners and advocates, this workshop held in Adelaide on 9th September explored a systems approach to public health, looking at the systemic drivers behind ill-health and ecological decline and climate change. Reforming systems of...

Getting policy traction: The 2012 Climate and Health Alliance report Our Uncashed Dividend produced in partnership with The Climate Institute has hit a chord with media, community, and policymakers. It was released in 2012 to widespread media coverage, has been the subject of many invited presentations, and has stimulated and informed the first ever submission from the Australian Government on health to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process occurring in October 2012, written following a meeting with...

Leading epidemiologist and public health researcher Professor Tony McMichael has been honoured with a two day festschrift in Canberra to celebrate his work on the occasion of his retirement from the National Centre for Population Health and Epidemiology at Australian National University (NCEPH-ANU). Current and former colleagues, students, and members of the national and international public health community gathered to reflect on, and pay tribute to, the work of the man described as "the world's leading scholar and commentator on...

By Brad Farrant, University of Western Australia, Fiona Armstrong, Climate and Health Alliance, and Glenn Albrecht, Murdoch University Climate change has been widely recognised by leading public health organisations and prestigious peer reviewed journals as the the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. A recently released report, commissioned by 20 of the most vulnerable countries, highlights the size of the threat: climate change is already responsible for 400,000 deaths annually, mostly from hunger and communicable disease. And our...