If you’re struggling to breathe or heading into surgery, concerns about climate change are likely not top-of-mind compared to worries about managing your own health.
But rather ironically, the health-care sector contributes to climate change by giving off a sizeable chunk of greenhouse gases — and medical experts say both health-care providers and patients can do more to curb those emissions
Health-care emissions make up about five per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gases, according to family physician Dr. Samantha Green, a board member with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
“We can do a lot within health care to lower those emissions and hopefully, therefore, decrease climate-related injury, climate-related illness and climate-related death,” Green said.
