20170324_TL

Source: YouTube

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYY6hiMDPLE

Date: 24/03/2017

Event: Richard Horton: "We are trying to change the consciousness of a generation..."

Credit: TheLancetTV

People:

• Dr. Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson:: Researcher, University of Sussex
• Professor Howard Frumkin: Head of Our Planet, Our Health, Wellcome Trust
• Dr. Richard Horton: Editor in Chief, the Lancet
• Melissa Lott: PhD student, Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL

[Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change Q&A.]

[Why do you care about climate change?]

Howard Frumkin: I trained as a primary care physician, taking care of individual patients one by one, but I realised at a certain point that if we don't take care of people's habitat, if people don't have good places to live, they can't thrive. Every zoo keeper realises this - the first thing you think about, as a zoo keeper, is "How do I create a good habitat for the animals so that they can thrive?" We need to think about humans the same way and we need to think about that on a very big scale of populations - that means that if there is a force threatening people's habitats, our collective world, then we need to address that force and that means we need to address climate change, to create a world in which we and our children and our grandchildren can thrive.

[Why are you involved in the Lancet Countdown?]

Richard Horton: I really believe that if you get the best scientists around the world together working on the best evidence, using that as a platform for advocacy and activism and not being frightened to do so, I think then you have an instrument that can really not only shape policy but actually trigger political transformation, and that's what we are trying to do here. We are trying to change the consciousness of a generation of political leaders and policy-makers, using science as the basis for that social change.

[What is the biggest response to tackle climate change?]

Melissa Lott: I think about our energy systems - the energy systems around the world are not only the predominant source of greenhouse gases emissions, they're also the source of all types of other types of air pollution that harm our health. And so when we look at those systems, we have technologies today that we can be putting out there today and deploying today that will protect human health, and not only in the short term by reducing pollution but in the long term by mitigating those impacts, so the response is to upgrade and update our energy systems to be cleaner and then do that as quickly as possible, so that we can really reap these benefits.

[What role do you believe scientists have in the 21st century?]

Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson:: I think it's important to realise that, as a scientist, we scientists have - we need to come up with new forms to communicate, so it's not only about publishing papers, and it's not only about talking to one another as in other academics or scientists but other ways of making sure that we send our message through. Because we are on the front lines and we see what happens and we know our facts, but sometimes there might be a gap in how we manage to to get our messages through, so maybe looking to new ways of communicating. So one of the things that I did was instead of only publishing papers, I make photo films so I let my informants tell their own stories to the world. And I'm sure that if you compare a paper that I've published and that tiny documentary of two and a half minutes, more people are going to understand my key points from the paper through that video than actually by reading the paper.