{"id":1331,"date":"2025-01-10T15:12:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/record-heat-public-health-risk\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T15:12:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:12:56","slug":"record-heat-public-health-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/record-heat-public-health-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Government urged to act as record heat puts public health at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As 2024 is confirmed as the hottest year on record, DAUK\u2019s sustainability lead Dr Matt Lee says record heat is putting public health at risk.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn this blog, Dr Lee urges the government to work with healthcare professionals on a public awareness campaign about the health impact of climate change.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hottest year on record<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s official. 2024 was officially the hottest year on record, breaching for the first time the 1.5C threshold set by the Paris Climate Agreement.\r\n\r\nStable weather patterns we have taken for granted for millennia are breaking down before our eyes and we are seeing the effects of this in the UK and globally.\r\n\r\nLast year gave us widespread flooding in north and south Wales, Manchester, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Loughborough, West Sussex, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Newcastle, Surrey, Oxfordshire.\r\n\r\nJust about every region in the UK experienced severe flooding and storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The increased severity of weather is human-caused climate change through the burning of fossil fuels.\r\n\r\nAnd this is just the beginning. We will experience stronger storms and worse flooding in the years to come.\r\n\r\nThe Californian wildfires demonstrate the strength of the natural forces around us and the futility of our actions when faced with the impacts of climate change.\r\n\r\nDuring 2024, wildfires in Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Brazil, New Zealand, and other countries caused immense damage. For many people, they brought the climate crisis even closer to home.\r\n\r\nWhat we have previously viewed as \u2018normal weather\u2019 is rapidly disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising temperatures<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And as we continue to emit more carbon from fossil fuels than we absorb, global temperatures will continue to rise.\r\n\r\nCatastrophic weather events will increase in frequency and intensity. They will affect our food production, our public services and our health.\r\n\r\n2025 can be the year the UK shifts the dial on climate change action. In addition to the Government\u2019s Net Zero commitments, we must go further and faster to secure a liveable future.\r\n\r\nLegislatively, we must pass the Climate and Nature Bill, to lock into law a commitment to restore nature by 2030.\r\n\r\nNature is our greatest ally in reducing carbon emissions. We must help it to help us all. The second reading of the bill is on 24 January and we urge everyone to contact their MPs to ask them to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public health<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, we need a public health awareness campaign on the climate crisis.\r\n\r\nThe UK public needs to know why we have to take stronger and more urgent climate action, in the same spirit as highlighting the importance of wearing masks in the pandemic.\r\n\r\nWe urge the Government to work with healthcare professionals to make this happen. Our Health, Our Planet<\/a> is already having an impact in raising this awareness.\r\n\r\nWe welcome discussions with national and devolved governments on the use and amplification of the resource to raise awareness to everyone what climate change means for our health, and what we must do to secure a safe and liveable future for all.\r\n\r\nPlease support our work by becoming a member<\/a> or donating to our Go Fund Me<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As 2024 is confirmed as the hottest year on record, DAUK\u2019s sustainability lead Dr Matt Lee says record heat is putting public health at risk.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[650,65,286],"tags":[287,651,652,680],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-crisis","category-dauk-news","category-guest-blog","tag-blog","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-crisis","tag-dr-matt-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}