Climate Change and Health The Case for Transformation and the Hidden Story of Power (and Powerlessness)

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1 Climate Change and Health The Case for Transformation and the Hidden Story of Power (and Powerlessness) Dr. Martin Herrmann Deutsche Allianz Klimawandel und Gesundheit LMU, Lecture Series on Global Health

2 Protest Vigil (Mahnwache) Charite Berlin Climate Change Makes Sick Patient Earth on Intense Health Care

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4 Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume II Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States 2. Economy With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars per year by the end of the century more than the current gross domestic product (GDP) of many U.S. states. 6. Health Impacts from climate change on extreme weather and climate-related events, air quality, and the transmission of disease through insects and pests, food, and water increasingly threaten the health and well-being of the American people, particularly populations that are already vulnerable. The frequency and severity of allergic illnesses, including asthma and hay fever, are expected to increase as a result of a changing climate. Climate change is also projected to alter the geographic range and distribution of disease- carrying insects and pests, exposing more people to ticks that carry Lyme disease and mosquitoes that transmit viruses such as Zika, West Nile, and dengue, with varying impacts across regions. Communities in the Southeast, for example, are particularly vulnerable to the combined health impacts from vector-borne disease, heat, and flooding. Extreme weather and climate-related events can have lasting mental health consequences in affected communities, particularly if they result in degradation of livelihoods or community relocation.

5 Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume II Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States Trump interviewed on the report: I ve seen it, I have read some of it, and it s fine. Q: They say the economic effect of it will be devastating A: Yeah, I don t believe it.

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7 Grafik Lancet Commission Health and Climate Change 2015

8 The 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change Key points In 2009, the Lancet Commission on Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change called climate change the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. The effects of climate change are being felt today, and future projections represent an unacceptably high and potentially catastrophic risk to human health Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century Co-Benefits lifestyle Vulnerable populations are the most effected by climate change Old, poor, disabled, marginalised...

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11 The Great Transformation The WBGU understands imminent change in politics, economy and society that is required in order to master the challenges described as a Great Transformation. The key requirements this comprehensive transformation must fulfil stem from the planetary boundaries, which make the conversion of national economies and the global economy under consideration of these boundaries compulsory, in order to avoid irreversible damages to global ecosystems and their consequences for humankind. Production, consumption patterns and lifestyles must be altered in such a way as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a minimum in the coming decades (decarbonisation of the energy systems and establishment of low-carbon societies), to minimise the scarcity of essential resources (above all land, water, strategic mineral resources) through major resource efficiency increases, and to avoid abrupt changes within the Earth system (tipping points), through economic and development strategies which take the planetary boundaries into account. Such a transformation cannot succeed without a hitherto unparalleled level of global cooperation, the further development of normative infrastructures in the international system, new welfare concepts, technology leaps, multifaceted institutional innovations and flexible reform alliances. The WBGU considers only two great transformations, waves of change or civilisation phases in the history of humankind to be comparable to the Great Transformation faced now: the Neolithic Revolution, i.e. the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural society, and the Industrial Revolution, already referred to as a Great Transformation by the Hungarian economist Karl Polanyi. Flagship Report WBGU German Advisory Council on Global Change

12 The Great Transformation The most difficult changes which must be brought about in order to achieve the Great Transformation transcend technologies changing lifestyles, for instance, or revolutionising global cooperation, overcoming policy-related barriers, and dealing responsibly with permanent, cross- generational changes. Technologies can help to simplify these challenges of comprehensive economic and social change. However, they are not the ultimate key, or even the only key, to the Great Transformation. Flagship Report WBGU German Advisory Council on Global Change

13 The Lancet Commission: Health professionals for a new century Transformative learning is about developing leadership attributes; its purpose is to produce enlightened change agents.

14 The Great Transformation The Role of Change Agents Change agents actively drive changes ahead. They propagate innovations by questioning business as usual policies and creating alternative practices, thereby challenging the established world views and paths, attitudinal and behavioural patterns, as well as providing others who think as they do (followers, early adopters) with a constant motivation for a self-sustaining change. Change agents therefore not only effect changes selectively, i.e. within their own sphere of experience, but also initiate widespread transformation processes at local level and from below. They animate others to change their behavioural practices. Flagship Report WBGU German Advisory Council on Global Change

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16 The four action fields: 1. Energy basis 2. Changed time regime 3. New basic infrastructures as a foundation for the low-carbon society 4. Social change and power shifts: Just as during the transition into an industrial society, the break with the old required by the low-carbon transformation is blocked by impeding actors defending their traditional privileges and roles; there are those with something to lose from the transformation, and those with something to gain. Furthermore, global power constellations will change. China, India, Brazil and other rising economies will be the new global economic centres.... is about reaching an unparalleled level of global cooperation, and international fairness, because the transformation must take place within such a tight timeframe. Ultimately, it is also about reviewing the relationship between humankind and nature. Flagship Report WBGU German Advisory Council on Global Change

17 Power Connotations Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ruling and being ruled Force and manipulation Abuse for personal benefits Power addiction Mostly negative Its reflection is a taboo The source of power is projected outside of oneself Power and powerlessness

18 Power dynamics Inclusion and exclusion Leading and following Categorizing Gossip and imagination Power dynamics are an integral element of our daily lives and conversations Source: Stacey, Complex Responsive Processes of Relating.

19 Power dimensions Power over Power to Power between Concrete power contexts with factual and imagined power and powerlessness

20 Hannah Arendt s lesson: Power as an emergent possibility between acting humans Power is what keeps the public realm, the potential space of appearance between acting and speaking men, in existence. The word itself, its Greek equivalent dynamis, like the Latin potentia derivatives or the German Macht (which derives from mögen and möglich, not from machen), indicates its potential character. Power is always, as we would say a power potential and not an unchangeable, measurable, and reliable entity like force or strength. While strength is the natural quality of an individual seen in isolation, power springs up between men when they act together and vanishes the moment they disperse. Source: Hannah Arendt. The Human Condition.

21 Martin Saar. The Immanence of Power From Spinoza to Radical Democracy Power does not necessarily refer as in contemporary usage to relations between persons or institutions in which someone has or holds power over another. It is rather a concept that defines or specifies being as such. The power of the state and of the political community ultimately rest on the power generated and enacted by the multiplicity of political subjects, the multitude as Spinoza calls it. But what this means is that the power of the multitude is a power between, not of subjects..there is always the possibility of new alliances, combinations, temporary unions. And politics for Spinoza is the art to facilitate these unions so that the multiplicity of powers becomes creative and not destructive. The free multitude, a unity that is not a real united entity, is a community of action, a community in action, emerging out of a practice, and an experience of a certain togetherness, a living together in a certain political space. This is what it means to share a political world, so we might say that also for Spinoza, democracy is more than a regime, it is a common world inhabited and shared by political subjects, it is a form of life.

22 Observations Generational patterns Mainstream economisation Mainstream management Key role of citizens versus role of politicians and scientists Plants, animals, ecosystems as powerful actors Lifestyle

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24 Relevant sources Two videos covering most of the relevant dimesnions: Healthy Planet, Healthy People Courtney Howard TED talk ca.18. min Medical Peace Work Climate Change an Health 30min Relevant reports: The Lancet Commission 2015 Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health The Rockefeller Foundation Lancet Commission Report on Planetary Health Flagship Report WBGU German Advisory Council on Global Change (mainly chapter 3 and 6) Wissenschaftlicher Beirat für globale Umweltfragen WBGU Hauptgutachten Welt im Wandel - Gesellschaftsvertrag für eine große Transformation (insbesondere Kapitel 3 und 6) Article:

25 Being a change agent The move from knowing to acting is key, it is the move from a inherited consumer identity to the emerging identity as a citizen. Resonating with key themes of our age and looking for ways to engage in a specific field / specific fields. Passion and resonance are good guides. Another key is finding allies and building networks / alliances. You will encounter what it means to start in a niche outside mainstream. You will encounter powerlessness and power. Engagement will give you quality exchange and relating as well as insights and intensity. You will contribute to the joint inquiry in what it means to live a good live together. If you want to join the German Alliance Climate and Health, you can organize a meeting and invite an Alliance facilitator or speaker to come. You can build a group iand coordinate with us. You can also join a 3,5 hour Action Workshop (in German) on January 15th 5pm 8.30pm in Munich.(send Martin Herrmann a mail if you want to come) More information: Martin Herrmann mail: m.herrmann@klimawandel-gesundheit.de