Geneva (AFP)

About 200 health professionals demonstrated outside the buildings of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva on Saturday to demand that authorities in all countries recognize the health risks associated with climate change and act to counter them.

Wearing white coats and masks, they marched or were pushed in wheelchairs for two kilometers in the international district of Geneva, to the WHO headquarters.

Some carried giant banners calling for action, including one showing a towering thermometer with the red gradation of temperatures rising towards a burning planet.

Upon arriving in front of the WHO building, representatives of the Doctors for Extinction Rebellion (Doctors4XR) climate activist network presented a petition to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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Signed by more than 1,100 health professionals from around the world, the text denounces "inertia, inaction and the abysmal distance between speeches and actions".

It demands that health authorities in all countries, who are currently participating in the World Health Assembly, "publicly declare that climate change is putting people at risk of death, and act now to save life."

"Year after year, statement after statement, multilateral institutions - including the WHO - have warned us: climate change and loss of biodiversity endanger human health around the world," the petition says.

Healthcare professionals around the world are already "confronted every day with the consequences of environmental degradation on our patients and our communities," she adds.

The petition arrived in an envelope decorated with a drawing of a healthy human at 37 ° C, then "sick" if we add 2 degrees, in "mortal danger" at + 4 ° C and at + 5 ° C, l 'too late' indication, followed by the words: 'Ditto for the planet'.

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"The concrete actions implemented by our governments are far from sufficient", underlines the petition.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus greeted the activists, promising to read their letter to member states.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has once again highlighted the intimate relationship between the health of people and the health of the planet,” he said, stressing that it has shown “what happens when we are not sufficiently prepared and that we are not successful in cooperating with each other. "

"The pandemic will end, but there is no vaccine against climate change," he said.

© 2021 AFP