Is health-care tourism sustainable?

Is it sustainable?  Well, do the local citizens have access to health care.  Let us explore that a bit.

There are no reliable records of the numbers on non-medical health care professionals globally, so the data on the number of physicians per 1,000 citizens in each country from the World Health Organization (2011) will be used to identify and quantify health provisions.  Globally the median density of health care professionals is 1.15 physicians per 1,000.  

Cuba (6.4 doctors per 1,000) and Greece (6 doctors per 1,000) are found next in physician density. Cuba should come as no surprise since this country has had a long and strong history of health tourism (Goodrich 1993b; Van Wilkinson 2008).  Likewise Greece, long known for the medicinal properties of its mineral springs has the benefit of the climate and bioclimatic conditions (Didaskalou et al. 2004). Progressing down the physician density list are two other countries, Malaysia and India, both known for health tourism.  Malaysia is one of the primary destinations in southeast Asia that has had the benefit of a deliberate marketing strategy by both the private and public sectors (Leng 2007).  And we find that the density of health care professionals in Malaysia (0.94) is comparable to Grenada and Peru (0.98, and 0.92 respectively).  Further west, India’s ranking of 0.60 is similar to the availability of doctors in Iraq, Morocco and Honduras (0.69, 0.62, and 0.57 respectively).

Glaciers retreating, not if, but when

Fact.

Glaciers are retreating.  Many will be gone in the next 100 years.
Fact!

This one is found in Glacier Bay, Alaska.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today my dad would have celebrated his 95th Birthday.

Happy Birthday to to all dads out there.

Confusion with Carbon Calculators

So, we are trying to calculate the carbon footprint for the annual Westfield River Canoe Race. Using two online calculators we get two different emission for the same car.  What gives?

For example from

TerraPass

I get this

7,768 lbs CO₂ per year


Carbon Footprint Ltd.

I get this

3.73 metric tons:

12000 miles in a USA 2005 TOYOTA COROLLA 1.8, Auto(L4)

International Mother Earth Day

22 April is International Mother Earth Day!


What did you do the help our planet, our people and our neighbors?

How well are we protecting out natural resources?

Westfield River Canoe Race 2012

They made it through Hill and Dale Rapids and just after I stopped the camera, the guy in the bow jumped into the cooooool water.  Air temps were in the 70s so it was a warm race despite the chilly water.

I had 10 Westfield State students interview paddlers and spectators this morning and we get over 80 surveys!  The purpose was to determine where folks came from, some background racing history and regular paddling and some basic demographics.

We also collected info about the respondent's car so we can calculate the carbon emissions.

Spring means Tornadoes

and then tourists chasing them. I call this "risk tourism" since getting caught in a F5 storm ain't fun. To get some (dated) information about the Storm Chasing industry, see this link.

BTW: Western Mass had a tornado last 1 June 2011 that folks are still cleaning up from. My colleague Dr. Karl Leiker gave a paper at the AAG meeting in NYC in February this year and you can see his abstract at this link.