Lightening our carbon footprint: economics, norms and doctors

Butler, Colin D

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03602.x

Topics

Doctors can best contribute to environmental sustainability by their example and by working actively to change social norms

McDermott’s article in this issue of the Journal (The carbon footprints of obesity, chronic disease and population growth: four things doctors can do)1 calls doctors to arms, in the tradition of the famed 19th-century German pathologist Rudolf Virchow and today’s Medical Association for the Prevention of War, to contribute to a better world. Its writer draws attention to profound issues and is to be congratulated.

National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.

Correspondence: colin.butler@anu.edu.au

Acknowledgements:

My thanks to Ben Ticehurst for helpful comments on this paper.

Competing interests:

None identified.

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