Low-lying islands and high rates of chronic disease make population particularly vulnerable, statement says
A group of 23 doctors from the Torres Strait and northern Cape York
is demanding action to protect remote Indigenous communities from a
looming health emergency caused by climate change.
In a joint statement, the doctors say they are concerned about the effects of heat stress and extreme weather events, the long-term effects of air pollution, the spread of disease, lost work capacity and reduced productivity, food insecurity, malnutrition, displacement and mental ill-health.
“Climate change will affect us all but our community in the Torres Strait will feel the first impacts,” Dr Ineke Wever said.
“Low-lying islands, an international border, overcrowding and high rates of chronic disease, diabetes and asthma make this population particularly vulnerable to heat stress, air pollution, rising sea levels and the mental anguish [of] potential relocation from islands where people’s families have lived for thousands of years.”
“We need to prepare our community to be as healthy as possible for
the coming changes and reduce the amount of chronic disease we take with
us into the future.”In a joint statement, the doctors say they are concerned about the effects of heat stress and extreme weather events, the long-term effects of air pollution, the spread of disease, lost work capacity and reduced productivity, food insecurity, malnutrition, displacement and mental ill-health.
“Climate change will affect us all but our community in the Torres Strait will feel the first impacts,” Dr Ineke Wever said.
“Low-lying islands, an international border, overcrowding and high rates of chronic disease, diabetes and asthma make this population particularly vulnerable to heat stress, air pollution, rising sea levels and the mental anguish [of] potential relocation from islands where people’s families have lived for thousands of years.”
An MJA-Lancet study published last month suggests Australia has a long way to go.
“Our research found no engagement on climate and health topics in the Australian federal government for the past 10 years,” one of the authors, Dr Ying Zhang from the University of Sydney school of public health, said.
“This is of significant concern, given the current impacts and projected escalation in frequency and severity of extreme weather events.”
The World Health Organisation has examined the health impacts of climate change in 13 Pacific Island countries.
Former senior medical officer in the Torres Strait Associate Prof Dr Lachlan McIver was the lead author of the WHO 2015 report and heads a health charity called Rocketship dedicated to improving health in the Pacific.
“My concern is that there’s a huge difference between the conversation that’s happening in the conservative echo chamber in Australia and how seriously this is being taken across the Pacific region and elsewhere in the world.”
McIver said Pacific Island people don’t have the luxury of being climate change sceptics.
“Solastalgia [is] a particular term that describes psychological trauma from loss of land, which is certainly applicable to the Torres Strait, which has many shared vulnerabilities with island communities elsewhere in the Pacific.
“One of the most tragic aspects of the discussion of action around climate change on a global scale, regional scale or a local scale is that people are completely failing to understand that this is affecting people’s health and lives now.”
McIver said in 2000 WHO estimated that climate change was causing in the order of about 150,000 excess deaths a year, based on a study of climate-sensitive diseases, malaria, diarrhoea, malnutrition and extreme weather events.
“By 2030 that’s expected to increase to around 250,000 per year,” McIver said. “These are avoidable deaths caused by climate change.
“As doctors that should motivate us; as community members it should motivate us.
“This is not some abstract minority voice, this is a clear and present danger. According to the WHO authorities, it couldn’t be clearer.
“It’s nightmarish and depressing. All is not lost, but we need action now.”
“Will there still be crayfish and turtles, dugong and sardines? These vibrant children of the Pacific, are they the canaries in the coalmine of climate change?
“Their health, their culture, their future depends upon us taking positive action now, together.”
The group of doctors is calling for a greater investment in primary preventative healthcare, and “a plan for rapid transition to a low carbon economy,” they said.
Torres Strait Island regional councillor Ted Nai, who also sits on the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Board, agreed that “courageous, visionary leadership that is of a higher order than the mere party line and politics” is needed.
“We must act with moral leadership and create optimism and hope,” Nai said.
“We islander people, including the people of the Pacific, who are the most at risk of these climate change impacts, must ask how do we ride the crest of the wave of this global conversation, and showcase how to build resilient and thriving communities that can live sustainably into the future.”
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