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Grant Blashki, University of Melbourne
 It would be hard not to have noticed the growing wave of concern about climate change from all sectors of the community in recent times, and health has been no exception with a steady stream of articles in our most highly regarded peer reviewed medical journals1,2,3,4. Predictions of the potential public health impacts of climate change have included alterations in the distribution of some infectious disease bearing vectors, increased heat related illnesses and the more general impacts that a warmer world would have on the economic and social wellbeing of communities5. What is our role and responsibility as primary care researchers to address the threat of climate change?
Clearly there are steps we can all take as citizens to minimise our direct impact on climate change in our personal lives and in the organizations in which we work. Detailed guidelines on simple lifestyle changes we can make are available such as the Australian Conservation Foundations Green Home guide6. Specific guidelines for medical clinics have also been developed which make suggestions on how we use energy and water and deal with waste in medical settings7. One very practical action that research organisations might consider is to offset the air travel required to bring researchers to conferences, an activity that is particularly carbon intensive.
However perhaps the most potent contribution we can make as primary care researchers is to direct some of our research effort towards climate change related research. For example, if predictions about climate change were to eventuate, what would be the implications for population health and primary health services in Australia? To answer these sorts of questions would call for a more predictive research methodology than many of us are accustomed to and would also necessitate much closer collaboration with public health, environmental and social researchers. Commonwealth and state based funding streams for this type of research appear to be emerging, and represent a tremendous new opportunity for primary care researchers to become involved.
Dr Grant Blashki is a GP and Senior Research Fellow at the Department of General Practice University of Melbourne. He has a strong interest in Primary Mental Health Care and the Health Impacts of Climate Change.
References
1 Woodruff RE, McMichael AJ, Hales S. Action on climate change: no time to delay Med J Aust`2006; 184:539–40.
2 Coote A. What health services could do about climate change. BMJ 2006; 332:1343–4.
3 McMichael AJ, Woodruff RE, Hales S. Climate change and human health: present and future risks. Lancet 2006; 367: 859–69.
4 Epstein PR. Climate change and human health.. N Engl J Med 2005; 353: 1433–6.
5 Woodruff RE, Hales S, Butler CD, McMichael AJ. Climate change health impacts in Australia: effects of dramatic CO2 emission reductions. Canberra: Australian, Conservation Foundation and the Australian Medical Association, 2005: 44. Available at www.acfonline.org.au/uploads/res_AMA_ACF_Full_Report.pdf
6 www.acfonline.org.au/greenhome
7 Blashki G, Butler C, Brown S Climate change and Health – what can GPs do? Australian Family Physician 2006; 35: (11) 833 – 928.
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