According to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) the scientific evidence is clear, climate change represents one of the biggest threats to Australian health in the 21st century.
AAHMS has issued a new statement calling for climate change to be considered an urgent health priority.
Released April 7, Climate change: an urgent health priority highlights how global warming has emerged as, “an unprecedented practical and ethical challenge to the health sector in Australia, with the risks to human health demanding urgent action.”
Professor Warwick Anderson, co-chair of the AAHMS Climate Change and Health Steering Committee said that anthropogenic warming puts people’s health and wellbeing under immediate threat.
“It is no longer time for healthcare as usual,” Professor Anderson said. “We are already seeing increased demands on sections of the healthcare system arising from extreme climate-related events.”
The physical health impacts of climate change are an active area of research and include issues such as heat stress and heat stroke caused by increasing temperatures, shifting patterns of insect-borne infections resulting from heavier rainfall, temperature increases and river floods, not to mention the significant mental health challenges linked to changing and uncertain environments.
Pregnant women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, people with underlying health conditions, and people living in the Indo-Pacific region face the greatest health impacts.
Research demonstrates that the extreme weather events associated with a changing climate can lead to increases in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, but also that more gradual changes in climatic conditions, such as rising temperatures and reduced air quality, are also harmful to mental health.[1]
In addition, there is increasing evidence that a significant proportion of people might be experiencing a harmful level of anxiety associated with their perception of climate change[1], with women disproportionately impacted by negative experiences with climate change and climate change–related events.
With a growing body of evidence confirming the threat posed by climate change[2], the Academy has spent two years reviewing the findings and fostering discussion among sector leaders about the short, medium, and long-term impacts of climate change on health.
The Academy’s statement highlights the importance of health in climate policy, and equally climate change in health policy. It outlines steps the health and medical research sector can take to mitigate current and future threats to the health of Australians, including:
- Promoting recognition among decision-makers that climate change is a major and urgent Australian health issue with implications for health equity.
- Delivering health and medical research that further advances knowledge of the direct and indirect health impacts of climate change and enables monitoring and management of these impacts.
- Supporting cross-sector, interdisciplinary and ecological investigations that will bring about health co-benefits and prevent disease and debility resulting from the causes of climate change.
- Collaborating with First Nations communities and experts to learn from Indigenous knowledge practices that can inform Australia’s path forward and ensuring First Nations voices are amplified in each of the areas above.
[1] Climate Change and Health (C Golden, Section Editor) Published: 02 January 2021 Climate Change and Mental Health. Susan Clayton. Current Environmental Health Reports 8, 1–6 (2021)
[2] Stone, K., Blinn, N. & Spencer, R. (2022). Mental Health Impacts of Climate Change on Women: A Scoping Review. Climate Change and Health. March 2022