PSR Joins WHO, 200 Health Groups in Call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty September 16, 2022

Call to Action Against Climate Change

“It is truly exciting to see this treaty moving forward internationally with support of the World Health Organization and other international treaty-supporting bodies.
– Barbara Warren, Arizona Chapter PSR

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Climate change sickens and kills millions of people each year from disease and air pollution, including smoke from the West’s raging wildfires. Photo: National Forest Service

Ending Our Addiction to Fossil Fuels

In what is being called an “unprecedented” call to action, the World Health Organization and upwards of 200 health associations worldwide—including PSR and its chapters—are urging world governments to agree to a legally binding, global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to combat the “addiction.”

“The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism,” said WHO president, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage.”

The call to action, announced Sept. 14, advocates for the phase out of fossil fuel exploration and production. The official treaty was a long time coming, but worth the effort, says Barbara Warren, executive director of the Arizona chapter of PSR.

“Earlier in the evolution of this effort, I was invited to join calls with citizen activists, energy experts and scientists from all over the world, including India, Australia, Canada and European nations and many more, who built the momentum for the actual treaty,” said Warren.

Based on efforts to combat both the war against tobacco and nuclear weapons, the fossil fuel NPT addresses the lethal threat to future generations through air pollution—including smoke from raging wildfires— which currently claims more than 8 million lives prematurely, according to the Guardian. Increasingly, global warming is also responsible for heat-related illnesses and food and water-borne diseases.

“The two overriding issues of our era—the climate crisis and the danger of nuclear war—are deeply intertwined,” said Ira Helfand, Nobel peace prize-winner, co-chair of PSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee and co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

“The climate crisis is leading to greater international conflict and a growing risk of nuclear war, and nuclear war will cause catastrophic, abrupt climate disruption. The world must come together to prevent both of these existential threats,” Helfand told the Guardian.

Your Support Is Crucial!

“Now it is time for each of us, individually, and also with our fellow organizations, to sign on to this treaty,” says Warren. “Please open the following links and get involved. And also please share the links below (which include lots of good information) to all of your colleagues, friends and other like-minded organizations.”

Sign the Treaty and learn more at FossilFuelTreaty.org

Watch introductory video on YouTube

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