Why climate change should be a key health issue this election Our perennial, ideologically-driven squabbling over whether and how to reduce carbon emissions is generally couched in terms of GDP, jobs, commercial competitiveness, household expenses and property safety. All are important, but the discussion is short-sighted, given the threat of unabated climate change to the very basis of population welfare, health, survival and social stability. Human-induced warming is increasing the likelihood of serious social and public health emergencies in Australia. In the near future, intensified extreme weather events (heatwaves, fires, floods, storms) will cause injuries, deaths, respiratory ailments, post-event infections and serious mental trauma. In the coming decades, climate change will exert much of its health impact on whole communities, via disruptions of environmental and social systems. These include: -- Shifts in the range and seasonality of various infectious diseases (such as salmonella food-poisoning, mosquito-borne dengue and Ross River viruses; -- Reduced farm yields in areas experiencing long-term changes in rainfall patterns – with implications for food adequacy and nutritional status (especially in lower-income households), rural community morale and mental health; -- Lack of freshwater in urban settings, threatening dehydration and poor hygiene; and -- Probable increases in regional migration and refugee flows, accompanied by a panoply of risks to health and social harmony. Awareness of the mounting risks to population well-being and health is a prime reason for reactivating public discussion of climate change and foregrounding it in this election debate. Historical climate variability Human societies have long experienced changes in climate. Natural climate changes over the past 11,000 years have caused many acute shocks to human societies. These have reflected the influences of natural climatic conditions, ranging from centuries-long fluctuations in prevailing climate, to acute extreme El Niño events (brief hot and dry periods) and volcanic eruptions. Europe’s Great Famine of 1315-1322 resulted from the unusual confluence of three consecutive years of severe harvest-damaging weather; food supplies halved and grain prices tripled. The Super-El Niño of 1789-93 had disastrous impacts on health, survival and conflict in several regions of the world. These included influences on the food shortages that fomented the French Revolution and the extreme heat, aridity and food shortages that afflicted the Sydney Cove colony in 1790-91, two years after its arrival in the First Fleet. Today, we are superimposing a large increment of rapid warming – and associated increased climate variability – on whatever background variation is occurring. There is coherent international evidence of a recent increased tempo and severity of most types of extreme weather events around the world bit.ly/16WKiWK
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 12:01:03 +0000
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