MEDICINE AND SOCIETY Medicine’s Role in Mitigating the Effects of Climate Change

Although philosophies connecting our health to nature go back to Hippocratic times, these early ideas stressed that harmony with and imitation of nature promoted health. Only recently have we begun to appreciate the reverse—that human medicine, as a result of its manufacturing processes, buildings, and waste disposal, has an unhealthy impact on the natural world [1]. The greening of health care has joined our general efforts to reduce the environmental impact of our homes, industries, campuses, transportation, and so on. Greening health care is challenging. Relative to homes, offices, and campuses, hospitals and clinics use materials and energy intensively—serving vulnerable patients and families in acute settings when those involved are too immersed in the crisis to embrace long-term environmental goals. The first wave of health care greening arose in the 1980s with attention to such practices as cleaner manufacturing methods and reduction in waste volume, toxicity of medical materials, and packaging. This movement is led by Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), which holds an annual CleanMed conference featuring gree