Climate Medicine Day
@ COP 28

Non economic losses associated with climate change include cultural and indigenous knowledge. This presentation will look at the case of Ayurvedic plants and medicines and examine the way both culture and art can be used in therapeutic ways to address the mental health impacts of climate change.

Three physicians, who practice at the intersection of climate change and health, will share reflections on how climate change has impacted the health of their communities in rural Canada, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Through a unique lens, we will contrast quantifiable health metrics of the climate crisis with the immeasurable cultural losses, shedding light on a dimension of climate impact often overlooked.

A digital collage of pictures, poems, drawings, and videos will be shared to illustrate the impact of climate change as seen through the eyes of healthcare professionals from around the globe. A panel will review the collage and underscore the humanity of healthcare workers, their culture, and what current interprofessional educational climate and health initiatives are beginning to address the needs highlighted in the collage!

Climate medicine physician fellows will present a brief overview of the mental health impacts of climate change paired with consideration of solutions and coping strategies. The majority of the program is dedicated to reflect on empathy and grief for a changing planet as participants have the opportunity to engage in Devora Neumark’s participatory art project, “Letters to the Ice,” as they write their own letter to changing forces of nature.

An African poem about climate change and disability.

Our cravings for desserts may be having an environmental and health impact that we may not have anticipated! Sugarcane workers have to work in ever increasingly hot temperatures and are developing kidney disease that may not only relate to heat and climate change, but also to toxins including that present in the sugarcane ash that results from the burning of the fields. In turn, burning the fields also causes pollution and more greenhouse effects. All for the love of sugar!