PLoS Medicine
(Accessed 9 June 2012)
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/browse.action?field=date

Why Human Health and Health Ethics Must Be Central to Climate Change Deliberations
Jerome Amir Singh Essay, published 05 Jun 2012
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001229

Summary Points
– The human health implications of climate change must be afforded greater prominence.
– Governments, the private sector, financiers, and society have a moral responsibility to practice socially responsible investment and to mitigate against the impact of climate change, particularly in relation to human health.
– Human health must be a core, not peripheral, focus in future climate change deliberations.
– The health community, led by health ministers, must play a central role in climate change deliberations.
– Health ethics principles must be afforded equal status to economics principles in climate change deliberations.

Connecting the Global Climate Change and Public Health Agendas
Maria Nilsson, Birgitta Evengård, Rainer Sauerborn, Peter Byass Essay, published 05 Jun 2012
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001227

Summary Points
– Climate change is a public health problem. Evidence from many sectors shows substantial health impacts of climate change, particularly for the most vulnerable: the poorest, the youngest, and the oldest.
– Human health and climate change are closely connected. Within the global United Nations (UN) process, health is seen as the most direct component linking climate change and individual lives.
– Public health actions in relation to climate change are needed. Top-down advocacy on health and climate at the UN level needs to be mirrored by bottom-up public health actions that bring health and climate co-benefits.