Dear Editor
Mahase quotes the World Meteorological Organization prediction of more extreme weather events possibly reversing decades of health progress (1), and WHO’s Maria Neira’s suggestion that climate change could be the ultimate opportunity for public health (2), which should help avert this.
Climate change, otherwise called climate chaos, could also be the ultimate opportunity to transfer fundamental ideas of chaos and complexity science from meteorology and climate change to medicine, health, public health, global crises and everything complex, and hopefully stop the reversal of decades of health progress (3,4,5).
Chaos and complexity, validated by the 2021 Physics Nobel Prize as the science for climate change and 2003 prestigious Japan Science Prize, has roots in meteorology, with pioneering research by MIT meteorologist Ed Lorenz.
Chaos in common usage means disarray, but as a 21st century science describes the expected and unexpected, with limits to prediction, and patterns in apparent random outcomes, illustrated in a BBC paper why the world feels so unstable right now https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230203-why-the-world-feels-so-unsta… and Fifty Years of Chaos https://latecomermag.com/article/fifty-years-of-chaos/ describing applications far beyond weather.
The term complexity includes chaos, describing the complex, dynamic, nonlinear interactions including self-organization, with emergence of uncertain outcomes in complex systems like climate, which would be similar for medicine, health, public health, global crises, and everything else complex (3,4,5).
The term climate chaos conveys the sense of urgency as a possible existential crisis in common usage, while climate chaos as a science invokes hope, optimism, creativity and an opportunity for change.
Climate change, especially if described as climate chaos, can be the ultimate opportunity to recognize its urgency, and an opportunity using validated 21st century chaos and complexity science for public health and beyond, to address complex 21st century global issues and make a better world (3,4,5).
Reference
1 Climate emergency: Health sector must prepare for more extreme weather events
BMJ 2023; 383 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2584 (Published 03 November 2023)Cite this as: BMJ 2023;383:p2584
2 The climate emergency could be the ultimate health opportunity, says WHO’s Maria Neira
BMJ 2023; 383 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2217 (Published 04 October 2023)Cite this as: BMJ 2023;383:p2217
3 Fraser S, Greenhalgh T. Coping with complexity: educating for capability. BMJ 2001; 323 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.323.7316.799
4 Rambihar VS, Rambihar SP, Rambihar VS Jr. Tsunami Chaos and Global Heart: using complexity science to rethink and make a better world. 2005. Vashna Publications. Toronto, Canada.
http://www.femmefractal.com/FinalwebTsunamiBK12207.pdf
5 Rambihar VS. Medical schools should teach chaos and complexity thinking
BMJ 2023; 383 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2412 (Published 20 October 2023)
Chaos and complexity as a fundamental science for climate change, public health and global crises