Accidents

Emergency Planning

How can we prepare for climate emergencies and prevent emergency responses from damaging the environment

We increasingly need to plan for emergencies relating to climate change. Hopefully plans are already in place to deal with floods etc. But should we modify these in relation to climate change - e.g. to deal with more frequent or longer lasting flooding. Do we need to link up various plans to deal with multiple climate change emergencies - e.g. displaced people causing local increase in population in which an atypical ('tropical')epidemic develops.

Do current emergency plans have negative impacts on the environment, eg. creating huge carbon emissions, or anti-terrorist activity having negative effects on the public transport network. Could we even extend this to the economic emergency? Does the  government's response to protect the motor industry (supposedly a green policy) - the 'car scrappage scheme' actually increase emissions caused by production?

Ian Roberts: Looking Upstream

Published by: 
The Campaign for Greener Healthcare
Resource type: 
podcast interview
Brief description: 
Professor Ian Roberts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine points to the impact of oil prices on incidence of pedestrian injury, and talks of traffic, children and sewage. A founding member of the Climate and Health Council, he explains their plans for a report on the health benefits of climate change policies - an important omission from the Stern Review.
Read more »