Climate Change and the Growing Risk of Nuclear War: A Health Care Perspective
Location: Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA
Sponsor: Physicians for Social Responsibility
More Information: For more information and to register for the symposium, please click here.
A one-day Symposium to examine the catastrophic public health consequences of climate change and the ways that climate change will increase the risk of conflict, including nuclear war.
Two enormous public health threats facing humanity today – climate change and nuclear war – are unique in the existential threat they pose to human civilization and the survival of our species. Important links exist between the two. Climate change will place increased stress on human populations and may lead to massive migrations and conflict between states, including states which are armed with nuclear weapons. Nuclear war will cause massive and abrupt climate disruption, though of a sort different than that caused by greenhouse gases.
Understanding these connections underscores the extreme urgency of dealing with both of these threats, and confirms the critical responsibility of the health and public health community to educate patients, the general public and decision-makers about the medical consequences if we do not.