Tony McMichael, Farsighted Champion Of Climate Change / Health
Research,
Dies At Age 71
Many
epidemiologists, particularly those who had just heard him give the
keynote address at the International Epidemiological Association
meeting in Anchorage Alaska in August, were surprised and saddened
to learn of the passing of Tony McMichael in Australia on September
26. McMichael was widely recognized in epidemiology and public
health as the voice on the real and potential adverse health effects
of climate change. His obvious dedication to the issue was always
something his colleagues appreciated, even if they did not free
themselves from studying traditional public health problems to
undertake some of the urgent research which McMichael called for.
McMichael’s work was
devoted to helping others both inside and outside of epidemiology
and public health to grasp what he had come to see so clearly,
namely the underlying importance of a sustainable environment as a
key determinant of population health. He saw this early in his
career when he began a weekly column for an Australian newspaper
entitled “Spaceship Earth.”
Tributes
Tributes to
McMichael have already mushroomed into dozens of written
appreciations of him both personally and professionally. On a site
dedicated to honoring his memory, there is a two part obituary, one
a conventional description of his academic achievements and a second
devoted to tracing the trajectory of his career, including comments
and tributes left by his colleagues surprised and saddened by his
untimely passing. [http://tinyurl.com/pwjwfzd]
We include here
excerpts from the comments of colleagues.
From John Last
I share the
universal sorrow felt by all epidemiologists everywhere at this
untimely death, although I am not shocked because he confided in me
years ago that he was living on borrowed time, and on a kidney
transplanted from his wife Judith. Tony had congenital renal
disease.
I
first met him briefly when he was still a medical student,
introduced to him by his mentor Basil Hetzel. I got to know him
well when he was a young epidemiologist, and our professional
interests coalesced around the most urgent crisis of our time, the
unsustainable pressure of human predation on ecosystems and
environments everywhere on our fragile planet… It would be hard to
find anyone with the same breadth of scholarship, the same degree of
knowledge and understanding of the dangers facing life on earth, the
same clear vision of contributions epidemiologists can make to
finding solutions, to making the world a better, happier place for
humans and other living creatures.
Tony was a warmly
compassionate, charismatic man, an inspiring intellectual and moral
leader. Like all who knew him, I will miss him very deeply and I
mourn his loss.
From Nancy Krieger
Tony’s work, as an epidemiologist, contributed in so many ways to
the bettering of people’s lives and also life on this planet. He had
a profound understanding of the need for deep theoretical and
historical analysis of past and present conditions, always with an
eye to the future, including the threats posed by global climate
change, and always with an eye towards equity. I always appreciated
and benefited from our exchanges (and his humor). And I have always
made sure to assign his writings to my students — so that they may
learn from his wisdom and insights, all as part of carrying on the
work to build a more just and sustainable world.
From Conor Kretsch
As someone who is a
relative newcomer to the arena of environment and health, I have
been greatly influenced and educated by his work and writings. But
more so, I have been influenced by his demeanour. He was never
anything other than forthcoming and kind in his responses to my
queries, never unwilling to engage, and always encouraging. I have
often said that one of the reasons I love my work is that there are
so many wonderful people involved whom I get to meet; perhaps there
is just a shared empathy and interest in humanity which drives some
people to pursue this field of work, and to change the world for the
better, and the chance to speak and work with them is fantastic.
Tony McMichael was one of those wonderful people.
I’m minded to think of him particularly this week – the UN
biodiversity summit takes place in the Republic of Korea, and on the
agenda is the issue of how health and biodiversity conservation are
linked, and how they can be better integrated in sustainable
development. It has taken many years of hard work to get the
discussions to where they are, and while there will certainly still
be much more to do when the summit closes, there have been enormous
strides taken this year and at other recent UN meetings – changes in
policy that can have a tangible benefit for human well-being and
nature conservation. This is part of Tony’s legacy – quite simply, a
chance to make a better world, and a healthier planet. It would have
been so much harder if those of us involved were not in so many ways
standing on his shoulders.
From John Vena (Received at the Epi Monitor)
I will miss Tony’s
soft smile, humble perspective, keen wit and superb scientific
insights. I have fond memories of Tony throughout my career
beginning in graduate school as I studied environmental and
occupational epidemiology and read his sentinel paper on the healthy
worker effect which informed my early career work on the study of
the Buffalo Municipal Workers. I enjoyed many interactions and
personal conversations at the International Society of Environmental
Epidemiology (ISEE) annual meetings including when Tony was the
plenary speaker as the John Goldsmith Award winner at the meeting in
2000 which I hosted in Buffalo, NY. The memories give me comfort as
I reflect on his passing but also know that his work will continue
to inspire us all.
From the health blog
at Croakey
Just a few days
before his death, Professor McMichael was emailing colleagues about
climate change and health. Colleagues have described him as a giant
of public health, an eminent scientist, a generous mentor and a
visionary leader.
A 2012 festschrift in
Canberra celebrated the breadth of his career and achievements:
“Professor McMichael has made seminal contributions
to scientific and human understanding of the health implications of
tobacco, the health risks from lead production, uranium mining,
rubber production, and ozone depletion as well as climate change.
Many of those present recounted how their careers had
been influenced by Professor McMichael’s’ work, particularly his
seminal text: “Planetary Overload”, published in 1993, which
outlined the threats to health from climate change, ozone depletion,
land degradation, loss of biodiversity and the explosion of cities.
Professor McMichael’s work as a public health
researcher and epidemiologist has been instrumental in the phasing
out of lead in more than 100 countries; key to legal decisions to
determine what constituted scientific proof in relation to harm to
human health from tobacco; and profoundly influential in
highlighting how the health of the natural environment and the
health of the biosphere is fundamental to human health.”
http://tinyurl.com/negtvds
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