In the Cairns suburb of Freshwater, chainsaws are about to destroy an 80-year-old raintree to make way for a dual-occupancy investment property...

I joined the Freshwater raintree campaign early on due to my deep concern about how nature loss is affecting human health.

As a GP, I know heat kills more Australians than all other natural hazards combined.

Yet across the nation, we are chopping down the very things that help us build climate resilience, showing repeated disregard for their value as a natural air con...

It’s not new knowledge that human health is inextricably tied to the health of our natural world. We literally depend on it for everything.

Year on year, we are seeing the mounting impacts of nature loss on our overstretched health services.

Extreme heat already leads to more deaths and hospital admissions than any other hazard in Australia, and this is set to worsen alongside climate change.

In Western Australia, a study found areas badly hit by dryland salinity had an associated elevated risk of hospital admissions for depression.

Conversely, research by the University of Adelaide estimated that every visit to a national park saved the health budget around $100.

And a 10% increase in tree canopy cover is linked to reduced risks of all causes of death, including heart attacks.

Those statistics invite us to acknowledge that health begins outside of hospitals and GP clinics.

https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260602-cathedral-of-nature-to-be-felled-for-dual-occupancy-development