Evacuate Yellowknife. I didn’t see it coming. Despite the closed windows, months of smoke-headaches and gray-sky blues, we were all taken by surprise. The fire crossed the last trench, 30 km from the city, and was running at 10 km per day towards Yellowknife.
I prepared my kit : chainsaw, water pump. I stocked up on supplies, thinking the planes would be grounded by smoke and our only highway would be closed because of the fires burning on either side. The evacuation order followed 48 hours later. We evacuated the premises. Twenty-seven thousand people, including a 100-bed hospital. More than 1500 km away. For three weeks.
I’m leaving for Singapore, because Canada is lagging behind. Sooner or later, we will need to build carbon-neutral hospitals powered by wind and solar energy, reduce the use of single-use items in clinical settings, and equip our operating rooms with air purifiers so that surgical procedures do not have to be interrupted during forest fires. I’d rather do this job here, but I can’t stand by while we jerk off in the handle.
Christmases without snow. Climatic insomnia has haunted me at 2 a.m. for a decade: “the madwoman of the house,” as my grandmother says. Following the advice of my psychologist, I built a career in climate change. “Action reduces anxiety,” says the DD Courtney Howard, a Canadian emergency physician and climate advocate.
After engineering school, I found a mission in decarbonizing healthcare systems, which depend on intact supply chains, resilient infrastructure, and a strong workforce. In the hospital, we will always need epinephrine – for anaphylactic shock, cardiac arrest – even if a tornado destroys the factory where the drugs are manufactured or if the roads leading to it are flooded.
Climate Academy, Canada in elimination. Our healthcare systems account for 5% of global emissions — that’s more than airplanes! — and around 10% of global GDP. Enormous purchasing power — gigantic leverage! — to decarbonize other sectors. Doctors and nurses have the credibility and influence to lead these changes: according to Ipsos, the public trusts them more than engineers, judges and scientists. Decarbonizing our healthcare would be a big step forward in the fight against global warming.
Although I accepted a high-profile job offer to lead healthcare decarbonization at the National University of Singapore’s School of Medicine, I am bitter about leaving the country to protect our frozen lakes. Why don’t we do that? Countries like the UK and Singapore are taking healthcare decarbonization seriously: they have solid plans; they are equipped and financed to achieve our carbon neutrality objectives.
Canada has committed to the World Health Organization to build low-carbon, climate-resilient health systems, but with a plan-no-plan, leaving small areas scattered teams at Health Canada, in the provinces and territories and in universities.
So, I’m moving to Singapore. This island stay will be enriching, and I am grateful to be part of this ambitious project. But for me, at home, it’s skiing in the forest and sleeping on fir branches at -40°C.
To save money. The climate emergency is the biggest health threat of the 21st centurye century. This will translate into more needs and more spending on health care, and more emissions: more asthma inhalers, more hospitals evacuated on military Hercules, more air conditioners against heat waves. But solutions exist.
Reduce waste in hospitals. Replace traditional asthma inhalers with dry powder inhalers (greener, with similar results for patients). Or even telehealth, when it is in the patient’s interest. These “no regrets” measures will save us money: the British have already eliminated more than 30% of their emissions, partly thanks to zero-emission ambulances.
In Canada’s North, smoke from zombie fires rises even in January: another summer of wildfires is coming. Most health professionals have never been trained on climate change. Our first line is not ready. The federal government brilliantly delivered a National Adaptation Strategy, but we must now make it a reality and eliminate our emissions, in partnership with the provinces and territories.
The Yellowknife evacuation was stressful. But prepare my kit had something reassuring: I was ready. With Doctors Without Borders, I have seen makeshift hospitals in Sierra Leone, Uganda and South Sudan erected due to displacement and famine often amplified by climate change. I never thought I would be a victim too. We must protect, strengthen and decarbonize our health system, so that together we can say: “We are ready. »