The health effects of climate change
Climate change is affecting people’s health in regions all over the world. Alice McGushin recently ran a workshop in Istanbul with the aim to inspire medical students to take action on climate change on a global level.
“Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century”. I have been using this quote from the 2009 UCL-Lancet Commission on Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change since I began advocating on the topic as a first year medical student in 2010. For me it had become a drawing point to raise awareness among my colleagues, to educate and engage them about the health effects of climate change and empower them to advocate for urgent action to protect health.
Through my work on action on climate change and health in Australia, I was given the opportunity to coordinate a three day workshop in Istanbul for the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, with the aim to inspire medical students from countries all over the world to take action on climate change. We had participants from Norway to Algeria, Sudan to Kazakhstan, Taiwan to Canada, all interested in learning more about the issue and what they could do as medical students.
This workshop was as much a learning experience for me as it was for the participants. It is one thing to read and speak about the way climate change is affecting people’s health in regions all over the world, but another entirely to sit in a room with students from these countries and listen to their own personal experiences of climate change. We learnt of increasing drought in Kenya, increasing frequency of heatwaves in Europe, worsening typhoons in Taiwan, changing patterns of tick-borne diseases in Canada and the air pollution in cities – due to the burning of fossil fuels, including fossil-fuel based transport systems – that was a common problem in many countries.
When we looked at the distorted world map comparing CO2 emissions with mortality rates as a result of climate change, those of us from Europe, North America and Australia felt guilty that our countries are the main emitters of CO2, whilst the health effects of climate change are overwhelmingly felt in countries that have contributed the least to the problem.
We discussed the UNFCCC and the importance of each country in working toward a global solution at the 21st Conference of Parties in Paris in December. The question was raised, “why isn’t Australia productively participating in these negotiations?”, and I felt I could not justify why Australia is only 0.3% of the world’s population, yet contributes 1.5% of the world’s emissions and is the 15th highest emitting country (1).
Speaking to my colleagues from Africa (who are experiencing the worst health effects of climate change) and Scandinavia (who are taking strong action to reduce their carbon emissions), I could not present a defensible explanation for why Australia had introduced an effective strategy to begin the mitigation process and then abolished it, leaving us with uninspiring and globally unfair emissions reductions targets for 2020.
We learnt from many participants about projects focusing on solutions that were taking place in their countries. We also learnt about the health “co-benefits” of these solutions, such as reductions in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases from reduced burning of fossil fuels and the reductions of obesity and diabetes from increased use of active transport.
Whilst climate change is an enormous and complex issue, every single person in our workshop was inspired and prepared to take action. We felt united with our passion to advocate for the health of our communities at a local and a global level. We left Istanbul feeling empowered and recognising that if we work collectively, we could motivate action within each of our countries that would, together, help to create change at a global level.
1. Garnaut R. The Garnaut Climate Change Review: Final Report. 2008.
Alice McGushin is a final year medical student, studying at the University of Tasmania, at the Rural Clinical School in Burnie. She grew up in Queenstown on the West Coast of Tasmania before moving to Hobart to pursue her studies. She became involved in climate change and health advocacy through Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) as a first year medical student in 2010. She took on the role of the Tasmanian student representative and later the national student representative for DEA. She is currently the Code Green co-national project manager for the Global Health arm of the Australian Medical Students’ Association. Her work has also provided her with opportunities to work with the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations as a presenter, workshop coordinator and coordinator of a network of medical students from around the world who are working to address the health effects of climate change.
Max Thomas
March 13, 2015 at 8:55 am
References for ‘the health effects of climate change’
A wonderful experience for you, Alice. I'm sure in the future there will be increasing demand for specialist expertise in managing he health effects of climate change. I noted your reference to the 'Garnaut Report' in relation to Australia's emissions. "Increasing drought in Kenya, increasing frequency of heatwaves in Europe, worsening typhoons in Taiwan, changing patterns of tick-borne diseases in Canada and the air pollution in cities – due to the burning of fossil fuels, including fossil-fuel based transport systems – that was a common problem in many countries." Is there source material attributing these effects to climate change?
Alice McGushin
March 14, 2015 at 4:04 am
References for the health effects of climate change
Hi Max, thank you for your comment. The most encompassing information on the health effects of climate change can be found in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change WG2 report in the human health chapter, as well as the regional chapters: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/ Other sources include the 2009 Lancet-UCL Commission (an updated Report is due to be published the May) http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/climate-change The World Health Organization has written a joint report with the World Meteorlogical Organization: http://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/atlas/en/ For sources of information in Australia, Doctors for the Environment Australia has resources: http://dea.org.au/ And many of the major medical journals around the world have papers published on the health effects of climate change, so you could search for specific papers on specific health effects in specific regions. I hope this is helpful.
Max Thomas
March 16, 2015 at 12:36 am
The health effects of climate change
Hi Alice, thanks for your reply. I know you must be very busy, this being your final year. I have no doubt that the health effects described in the reference material you provided are occurring as they have for quite a long time. The outlook, even with informed intervention looks pretty grim. I admire and support efforts to take the precautionary path. Doing nothing would very likely result in outcomes far worse than the direst predictions. As you know better than I, effective and durable solutions are usually based on problems being first accurately defined. My concern is that although climate and weather are clearly major factors in the occurrence and distribution of disease, it is very difficult to isolate climate change from other social and economic forces. I have no quarrel with the reference material you provided. However it is general in nature and could not be expected to relate specific events to climate change…yet. Unfortunately, the uncertainty of science is the fake currency of psuedo-science. I hasten to add that this is no justification for inaction but I contend that other concurrent social and political action might well defer the onset of climate change effects. If a threat cannot be overcome, our next instinct is to flee. I'm not suggesting that large groups of vulnerable and powerless people can simply relocate. Unfortunately, in many instances, they have already been displaced and thereby their exposure to health risks has been exacerbated. The UN, and for that matter, CIA and others have been aware of these developing 'stategic' issues for a long time. Sooner or later, they will have to be addressed at the international political level even if for selfish reasons. We support MSF to maximum we can afford but know the demand is overwhelming. So it seems to me that the "ambos' at the bottom of the cliff" will have to help 'build the fence' at the top. I am sure that the medical profession has much to offer in helping focus public attention on the health impacts, thereby hastening action on other fronts. I've retired after a long career in environmental management. A great deal of time time was spent having to convince environmentalists that most environmental issues are much more complex than they appear and that ideology is no substitute for rigor. That is no reflection on your work, but I'm afraid some will simplistically attribute disease to climate change which can lead to inertia and distortions in public policy. If you get time (as if), I would very much like to have your comments on my 'Open Forum' blog titled 'Population and the Environment'. With respect and best wishes Max