Pollution from coal power is increasing world’s temperature: Experts

Doctors are joining the fight against pollution from coal power, adding a significant new dimension to the effort to rein in global warming. Calling for"a rapid phase-out of coal from the global energy mix”, a panel of 46 health professionals and climate scientists identified the world’s rising temperature as one of the biggest threats to humans."The health community has responded to many grave threats in the past.

It took on entrenched interests such as the tobacco industry and led on the fight against HIV/AIDS,"said Peng Gong, co-chair of the group who directs the Earth science systems center at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The recommendations in the British medical journal Lancet helped add the authority of doctors to the campaign against fossil-fuel emissions, to date a fight largely waged by environmentalists and scientists.

About $6.8 trillion a year is spent on health – 9.1% of the world economy, the paper said, so involving the industry would increase drastically the resources taking climate into account. Just as Pope Francis added his moral support for swift action on the environment last week, the commission brought together by Lancet widens the number of professions pushing for a change in the way energy is used.