Women Physicians on Mother Earth

Author: Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, FACP, FHM

Keywords: climate change, women in medicine, advocacy, activism

“If you’re going to be a feminist on a hot planet, you have to be a climate feminist.”

— Katharine K. Wilkinson, a co-editor of the climate anthology ”All We Can Save” 

I’ve always considered myself an environmentalist but I did not get truly passionate/slightly obsessed until I had children. I cannot exactly explain why I wasn’t more fired up before that because I certainly cared. I remember as a child, my father, a chemist, used to have jars around the yard to collect rain water. My brother and I used to make fun of the precious collection but he was measuring levels of acid rain. He made us turn off the lights religiously and the house was always a little too hot in the summer because the thermostat was off limits. I still had these habits deeply embedded in my psyche but I didn’t picture myself marching in protests. We cannot dwell on the past but only move forward.

Whether we think of ourselves as privileged or not, many physicians or physician families fall into the “1%” category of over $450,000 or close to it. We have a personal responsibility with our actions such as not switching out our gas-guzzler SUVs every couple years, not throwing away our clothes, cutting down on air travel. Even if we all lived like monks though, policy change is what will restructure our world. We need to be active. We as physicians have an incredibly powerful voice that we can raise in defense of this planet and the people on it.

Women have a unique role in this. Much of the force behind these climate movements have come from behind. They have been started by people without a voice like teenagers who cannot vote, usually girls, many are LGBTQ, and they have changed the conversation. I do not mean to say that men are not passionate about the future of our planet as well but look at the COP26 talks in Glasgow. Many of the world leaders at the table are old and male whereas the protests are led largely by young women. Women have not traditionally been at the table to challenge the status quo. The same is true for people of color, Indigenous people, and young people. 

These young women speak with a passion and fury that comes with the realization of the attendant suffering that comes with dragging our feet. In fact, emissions of greenhouse gases have risen more since the first international climate summit 27 years ago than all of human history. Now scientists say the world has less than a decade to sharply curtail emissions to avert the worst climate consequences. 

Young women from around the world recognize that women are more impacted by the climate crisis than men especially low-income women with children to feed. When there are climate disasters, women are also more impacted. There is an increase in violence against women when husbands are stressed from crop failures or drought. Women are subjected to assaults when they must travel long distances to get water and food. Refugee camps are notoriously unsafe for women and girls. Early marriages, sex trafficking can all result.  Education of women and girls in developing nations is a shared goal with the climate movement and girls cannot go to school when they must help their poor families. 

If we think the Global North is to be spared, we are wrong. The Pentagon has called climate a “threat multiplier” in that it exacerbates already existing disparities and injustices. Besides its impact on the social determinants of health, air pollution contributes to 350,000 premature deaths in the US alone, over 10 million globally. These are our patients, not to mention our neighbors, our parents, and our children. It has been associated with everything from cardiopulmonary disease to cognitive decline, from adverse birth outcomes to criminality. It impacts nearly every condition we seek to treat. 

So, what can we do? Pick one thing and do it once a week and things will change. Green your hospital hospital or ambulatory practice. Work with your medical societies to advocate for environmental justice.  The American College of Physicians and the American Lung Association are a few active societies. The ​American Society of Anesthesiologists started an Inhaled Anesthetic 2020 Challenge as part of an international campaign to decrease these potent greenhouse gases. Write op-eds. Teach the impacts of health and climate change to your medical students, to your colleagues, your patients, anyone who will listen. Advocate for climate change education in your children’s schools.

You can also join non-physician campaigns or activist groups like Citizen’s Climate Lobby, the Sunrise Movement, 350.org, or maybe Extinction Rebellion! You can join Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, or League of Women Voters. Donate money; Sunrise Movement, Fridays for Future (Greta Thunberg’s organization), and Greenpeace are some worthy organizations. Groups with an environmental justice focus include the Centre for Social Justice, Uprose, and We Act. Climate Power and Evergreen Action are writing climate policy.  The Environmental Voter Project and Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action focus on voting rights to affect climate change policy. Greenfaith is a faith-based environmental organization. Talk about climate change in your social networks, even when it seems uncomfortable! And, of course, a simple thing is to vote in every election, national and local! And, once they are in office, call their offices, email them, and thank them for their support. 

As women in medicine, we can not only amplify messages. We can lead the way and support women’s empowerment as a strategy to improve the resilience of our communities. Don’t be quiet. Be persistent. There is too much at stake.

About the Author: Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, FACP, FHM is a hospitalist and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Cooper University Hospital/Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. Her interests include climate change and health, gun violence, medical education, and the humanities.