Health activism and the challenge of planetary change, including to the climate

Abstract

This chapter argues that health practitioners have a duty of care to embrace and to support non-violent social activism, to the extent to which they feel comfortable, but perhaps including the risk of arrest. We believe this is justifable, given the increasing peril in which civilization fnds itself. However, it is also clear that the 'milieu' matters; the social environment in which protests occur. Health practitioners, in some countries, have contributed to signifcant social reform; such reform may happen again; the challenges are formidable, yet we must try.