In the health world, a code red in a hospital means a person is about to die. Nurses, doctors, and others on the code team drop everything they’re doing and run to resuscitate the person who is in trouble. They use anything they have that will help – medicines, oxygen, resuscitation bags to get air into the persons lungs, intravenous lines, central lines, defibrillators – anything that will help.
The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report says that climate change is a code red for humanity. Health Professionals are calling for emergency action, with over 200 medical journals calling for emergency action.
We need to treat the climate crisis like the true health emergency it is. We can see with our eyes the emergency that is happening now: fires, floods, storms, hurricanes – from coast to coast, we are experiencing climate disasters in every part of the country.
What would that look like – a code red for the planet?
It means we drop everything we’re doing to address the climate crisis. It means we use any resourcce we have and do whatever it takes to fix the problems we have created.
What we need is to stop burning fuel for energy, and switch to clean renewable energy: solar, wind, and geothermal. We need to switch to clean transportation, and use EV buses, cars, trucks, and trains. We need to build the charging infrastructure to recharge all the electric vehicles.Most importantly, we need to do all this fast.
During a code red, any delay is dire for the person in trouble. We have spent the last 20-40 years going slow with addressing the climate crisis, and now we are in a true emergency, and we have to act fast. It’s a code red.
It may seems it costs a lot, but it is actually good for the economy – new jobs, better jobs, improved health from less air pollution, improved productivity, better crop yields. It’s a win-win situtation.
The good news is that there is still time to act, but time is short and we need to do it now. We need major investments in infrastructure, energy, and transportation.
09/28/2021
