Utah docs say climate change is No. 1 health threat

A group of doctors called Thursday for Utahns and their leaders to take dramatic and immediate steps to address climate change, calling it "the greatest public health threat of the 21st century."

The Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment unveiled an ambitious campaign to tackle the issue just as the Utah Farm Bureau Federation announced its own participation in a campaign to put the brakes on congressional efforts to address climate policy with what opponents denounce as an energy tax.

"This focuses on what the bills [before Congress] would do to American agriculture," said Farm Bureau CEO Randy Parker, describing his group's effort to defeat climate-change legislation.

In an auditorium at the University of Utah School of Medicine, the eight doctors and two climate experts described the threats they see at hand and their prescription for dealing with it.

"Those who urge or insist on waiting 'until all the science is in,' or call this a hoax," said Brian Moench, a Salt Lake City doctor and president of the doctors' group, "do so in defiance of overwhelming scientific evidence reminiscent of the tobacco industry's decades-long campaign to cast doubt on the adverse health effects of cigarettes."

The group offered an in-depth summary of climate change research to bolster its conclusion that climate change is dire public health threat. Speakers noted that climate change is expected to bring more heat waves, destabilize wildlife

and the ecosystems they rely on, increase dust storms and increase the health hazards posed by disease and increased air pollution.

The group called for Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to develop a plan to reduce the state's greenhouse gas footprint and for the state's junior and senior high schools to incorporate a greenhouse gas science curriculum.

"We cannot think of a more important scientific concept for our children to understand," said Howie Garber, a Salt Lake City physician who outlined the group's goals.

Garber used a metaphor as the Earth as a home filled with heavy smokers.

"[W]e have been lighting the cigarettes," he said. "We must open the windows, put away the ash trays, hide the matches and stop supplying the cigarettes."

The group urged supporters to attend a climate-action rally Saturday at Library Square.

Meanwhile, the national "don't cap our future" campaign by the farmers kicked off this week when Parker testified before a legislative committee about the harm cap-and-trade legislation is projected to do to the nation's agriculture industry and food security.

With energy costs accounting for up to 50 percent of production costs for farmers, the bills being considered by Congress to tackle climate change would drive farmers out of business, increase food costs and threaten the nation's food security, Parker said.

The farmers' campaign is national, and the association's 27,000 member families in Utah are expected to hear more about it at their upcoming annual convention.

fahys@sltrib.com