October 15th is Blog Action Day, and this year's theme is climate change.
I'd like to take this opportunity to call attention to the perspective of an esteemed client of mine, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
Before I started to work with them, I was unaware that the goal of nuclear disarmament is closely related to concerns about climate change, but IPPNW has done some very serious research on this topic.
Here are three of their publications:
"An assessment of
the extent of projected global famine resulting from limited, regional nuclear
war" by Ira Helfand, MD
"Nuclear famine: Climate and health effects of regional nuclear war," An IPPNW fact sheet
"Climate and health effects of regional nuclear war: How sudden global cooling could produce a 'nuclear famine' "
"Nuclear famine: Climate and health effects of regional nuclear war," An IPPNW fact sheet
"Climate and health effects of regional nuclear war: How sudden global cooling could produce a 'nuclear famine' "
Physicians have an ethical obligation to promote public health, which sometimes requires them to issue warnings in order to prevent harm that they would be unable to treat after the fact. I deeply respect IPPNW's alacrity in responding to this ethical mandate. (I gather that the Nobel Committee felt the same way, since they awarded IPPNW the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.) If you'd like to learn more and to support this awe-inspiring organization, you can visit their web site and their blog, or join one of their lists.