Doctors call for nonviolent direct action over climate crisis

(The Guardian, 27 Jun 2019) Governments have abrogated responsibility with woefully inadequate policies, says letter.

More than 1,000 doctors including 40 professors, several eminent public health figures and past presidents of royal colleges are calling for widespread nonviolent civil disobedience in the face of the environmental crisis.

In a letter to the Guardian, the doctors say government policies are “woefully inadequate”, and call on politicians and the media to face the facts of the unfolding ecological emergency and take action.

“As caring professionals we cannot countenance current policies which push the world’s most vulnerable towards progressive environmental catastrophe,” they write.

“We are particularly alarmed by the effects of rising temperatures on health and heed predictions of societal collapse and consequent mass migration. Such collapse risks damage to physical and mental health on an unprecedented scale.”

The doctors back the school strike movement, which was started by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and is calling for a general climate strike in the autumn. They also back the Extinction Rebellion protests during which thousands of people blocked key sites in London for 10 days in April.

External link

The Guardian, 27 Jun 2019: Doctors call for nonviolent direct action over climate crisis