Peak oil and health care: Closer than you might think

Medicine at the crossroads of energy and climate change

By Dan Bednarz, Ph.D. and Kristin Bradford, M.D., M.P.H.

"The difficult thing now is there’s no [longer any] low-hanging fruit." - Roger Elliott, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Chippewa Falls, Wis. on efforts to reduce hospital energy costs.

"[A]ny field … should be judged by the degree to which it understands, anticipates, and takes action in regard to changes in society." - Bernard Sarason. The Making of an American Psychologist.

With few exceptions, medicine is not preparing for global warming and the approaching zeniths in the extraction of oil, natural gas and coal from the earth (often referred to as peak oil). The implications of these intertwined socioeconomic and geopolitical perils are stupefying, with global warming calling for radical reductions in the use of fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions – most estimates calculate 80% or more by 2050.

Throughout society, the meaning and scale of peak oil is misconstrued as a temporary concern over “energy prices” or “addiction” to foreign oil. Here lies our predicament: not only are these health dangers, they could undermine our ability to sustain health care systems.

(The rest is here.)