Just Medicine 35. Climate action: Just what the doctor ordered
Jul 10, 2025
Dr. Melissa Lem, a family physician and environmental advocate who leads CAPE and directs PaRx, talks about connecting planetary health to clinical care. She describes climate-driven harms like heat, smoke, and floods. Practical clinical actions are discussed. She also explores equity impacts and how clinicians can sustain effective climate advocacy.
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Nature Sparked A Career Shift
- Melissa Lem discovered nature's health benefits after feeling more stressed in downtown Toronto than in rural practice.
- That realization led her to research nature and health and later to direct PARX, Canada's National Nature Prescription program.
2021: Front-Line Climate Year
- Melissa Lem describes 2021 as a year of multiple climate disasters in BC including a deadly heat dome, floods, and wildfires.
- She recounts seeing unprecedented heat illness presentations and continuing smoke-related health impacts.
Climate Harms Are Unequally Distributed
- Fuel poverty and lack of indoor cooling amplified deaths during the heat dome and show climate impacts hit the poor hardest.
- Burning natural gas also harms health directly while driving regional carbon pollution.