Click here to follow the banners as they tour around the UK
Following our “Climate and Health press conference” outside Parliament in April 2025 where we challenged our government to act on the ‘greatest threat to human health’ that we are all facing, we are now taking our banners, and their crucial message, on tour around the UK. They will be displayed by HXR members, health professionals and community members in a series of iconic locations.
The banners have a similar design to those used during the Covid pandemic and have a parallel aim: to raise awareness of the health harms of the climate emergency and to help people and politicians to understand that, in order to protect everyone’s health and our NHS, we need to take urgent action, including ending the extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
Alongside the banners, people will hold placards highlighting how increasing temperatures, severe weather events and air pollution are causing tens of thousands of deaths each year and increasing the risk of heart and lung disease, cancers, mental ill-health including eco-anxiety and dementia. As drought and floods damage crops and increase food prices, doctors are also seeing an increase in nutritional problems. And our warming climate means that diseases spread by mosquitos, such as dengue fever and West Nile virus are spreading across Europe towards the UK. The elderly, children, pregnant women and people with disabilities and chronic illnesses are most at risk. This is putting a huge strain on our already overburdened NHS, which is itself at risk as extreme weather can damage its supply of water, drugs, equipment and computer systems, leaving it unable to cope.
The good news, however, is that, if our government invests in clean energy, plant-rich diets, insulation, nature restoration and expanding public and active transport, these are all great for our health and will reduce demand on the NHS. These are win-win solutions.