» Symptoms - Greenpeace Canada weblogs

May 15th, 2009

Symptoms

Anil Kanji

© Dean Sewell / Oculi/Agence VU / Greenpeace

“Climate change is a health issue affecting billions of people, not just an environmental issue about polar bears and deforestation.”

So said Dr. Anthony Costello, Pediatrician and lead author of Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change, published in the Lancet. The report is here [PDF], and you can watch the authors talking about it here.

It’s worth checking out, even if only to broaden your understanding of the many repercussions climate change could have on our lives. The report addresses six main areas: patterns of disease and mortality, food security, water and sanitation, shelter and human settlements, extreme events, and population migration. Just thinking about the scope of each one of these areas reminds me of how far-reaching these effects will be - for myself and family and friends all over the world.

In Canada, there is a growing awareness of the health effects of climate change. We’ve spoken before about how Health Canada released a major (albeit buried) report on it. Despite this the connection between human health and climate change is still not widely discussed. We tend not to think about how warmer temperatures increase the potential of insect-borne disease to spread, or how crop failures will lead to food insecurity. But symptoms are already here, and in some cases in ways we could not have predicted. The CBC recently reported on an outbreak of a rare tropical fungal disease in BC. Migratory birds are bringing lyme disease to Toronto. And the food security of northern communities has been endangered as changes in the rate of the spring melt and variable spring weather conditions have affected community access to hunting and fishing camps [PDF].

There is opportunity to act however. The medical and public health community have a powerful voice and can help reinforce with the federal government that climate change is a a health issue. The Registered Nurse’s Association of Ontario has been proactive on climate change, and has joined the KYOTOplus coalition. Just as an experiment, next time you’re visiting your doctor, ask her if she’s concerned about the health impacts of climate change. And why not fire off a note to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq? Feel free to copy/paste/adapt the short text below and email it to Ms. Aglukkaq.

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Dear Ms. Aglukkaq:

You’ve been praised for your calm and measured reaction to the recent Swine Flu outbreak, and lauded for obtaining consensus from oposition critics. Congratulations on addressing this first hurdle with grace.

I’d like to talk to you about another pressing issue that concerns me and millions of other Canadians - the health impacts of climate change. The EPA released a report in April that declared that greenhouse gases pose a significant threat to public health. And the British medical journal The Lancet today released a report that calls global warming the biggest threat to human health this century. Even though Health Canada produced a similar report last year, it was only quietly released, and is still not available online.

I’m worried about the federal government’s inaction on climate change, and on how little thought or preparedness seem to be involved in protecting Canadians from its affects.

I’d like to know your thoughts on the matter.

Respectfully your,

[Insert your name]

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