OVERVIEW
This book addresses that oversight and enlightens readers about the most important aspect of one of the greatest challenges of our time.
The global environment is under massive stress from centuries of human industrialization. The projections regarding climate change for the next century and beyond are grim. The impact this will have on human health is tremendous, and we are only just now discovering what the long-term outcomes may be.
By weighing in from a physician’s perspective, Jay Lemery and Paul Auerbach clarify the science, dispel the myths, and help readers understand the threats of climate change to human health. No better argument exists for persuading people to care about climate change than a close look at its impacts on our physical and emotional well-being.
The need has never been greater for a grounded, informative, and accessible discussion about this topic. In this groundbreaking book, the authors not only sound the alarm but address the health issues likely to arise in the coming years.
Jay Lemery, MD
Jay Lemery, MD, Is The Climate & Health Foundation Endowed Chair In Climate Medicine and Professor Of Emergency Medicine At The University Of Colorado School Of Medicine, Chief Of The Section Of Wilderness And Environmental Medicine, And Faculty in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health At The Colorado School Of Public Health. He Is A Past-President Of The Wilderness Medical Society.
Dr. Lemery has expertise in austere and remote medical care, as well as the effects of climate change on human health. At the University of Colorado, Lemery co-founded the Climate & Health Program, based at the School of Medicine. The Program inaugurated the nation’s first graduate medical education climate & health science policy fellowship for physicians in 2017, in partnership with numerous federal agencies and nonprofits. In fall 2022, the program launched the ‘Diploma in Climate Medicine’ for healthcare providers, the first of its kind at a School of Medicine, offering a distinction for expertise and leadership in this novel field.
Paul Auerbach, MD (1951-2021). Paul passed away June 23, 2021 after a long fight with cancer. He was a loving partner, father and a generous mentor to so many in medicine, leaving a rich, enduring legacy.
Paul Auerbach, MD, was the Redlich Family Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Military/Emergency Medicine at the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He was a founder and past president of the Wilderness Medical Society and elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Auerbach was the founding editor of the definitive textbook Wilderness Medicine and author of Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine and Medicine for the Outdoors. He was the founding co-editor of the journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine and is one of the world’s leading experts in wilderness medicine and emergency medicine.
Dr. Auerbach served as a first responder to the earthquakes in Haiti (2010) and Nepal (2015) and was instrumental in creation of the Nepal Ambulance Service. Former Chief of the Divisions of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt and Stanford Universities, he has also been a faculty member at Temple University and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Auerbach was one of the first proponents of physicians becoming active participants in the discussions on issues related to the environment and global climate change through his advocacy in helping to create the Environmental Council of the Wilderness Medical Society and a widely-read commentary published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2008 titled “Physicians and the Environment.”
He has been honored by the Divers Alert Network as the DAN/Rolex Diver of the Year and with a NOGI Award for Science from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences, and recognized by the 98th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne) for his work in Haiti. He lived a life to seek opportunities to assist others and make the world a better place.
Dr. Auerbach’s legacy:
from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/health/dr-paul-auerbach-dead.html
from the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/paul-auerbach-dead/2021/07/20/38576992-e957-11eb-ba5d-55d3b5ffcaf1_story.html
from Stanford Medicine: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/07/paul-auerbach-wilderness-medicine-pioneer-dies-at-70.html