Northern England flooded. More than 150,000 displaced by flooding in South America. New York recording temperatures of more than 20 degrees Celsius on Christmas Eve. Countries like Malawi running out of food due to previous drought. Record heat in Australia. What a December we had. Records seem to be falling all the time. But this… Read More

Yesterday Professor John Loughhead the Chief Scientific Advisor at the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change published a blog: ‘Securing the UK’s Energy Future: the role of gas’. Given it came so soon after COP21, the global climate change talks, my initial reaction was one of dismay. Natural gas is a fossil fuel so the… Read More

Yesterday Health Care Without Harm and the Federation of Hospitals of France hosted a conference on climate change and healthcare in Paris. The conference focussed mostly on the role of large healthcare providers such as those providing hospital based care. Health Care Without Harm have identified three key ways in which health care organisations can contribute to… Read More

With the world’s attention on the issue of climate change and the global negotiations taking place in Paris, there has never been a more important time to challenge ourselves to think differently about the future and to question the boundaries we place on our choices. If I had to choose the single most influential idea which I learnt… Read More

For too long we have dwelt on the ‘climate’ part of climate change. But now the threat is imminent. The direction of change isn’t in doubt. Now we must focus on the ‘change’ part of climate change. We must prepare for huge impacts to our world and work as hard as we can to limit these. I must… Read More

Recently I was asked to run a session on leadership and sustainable development for public health trainees in the UK. This blog presents some of the ideas from the session with the specific aim of provoking thoughts about how the global challenge of climate change might change our ideas on leadership and how we can use the new understanding to inform how… Read More

Later this week people in the UK including me will have a chance to vote in a general election #GE2015. The outcome of this vote will change directly what happens in the next five years, which in turn will alter what happens beyond that. It will affect everyone in the UK and beyond. I want to use my… Read More