Assessment details disastrous human health impacts of climate change
The release today by the federal government of the inaugural National Climate Risk Assessment reinforces the disastrous risks to human health from increasing temperatures.
AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen welcomed the release of the assessment, saying it reinforced what the AMA and other health organisations have been saying for years about the potential health effects of increasing temperatures and climate change-driven disasters.
“In 2019, we joined with the British Medical Association and Doctors for the Environment to call for action on climate change, warning of the disastrous impacts if nothing was done,” Dr McMullen said.
“The information in this assessment — including that heat-related deaths would surge 450 per cent (in Sydney alone) if global heating surpasses 3C — is terrifying, but it can’t be ignored.
“Every year we see heatwaves around the globe and increasingly record-breaking temperatures, and with those heatwaves, we sadly see people dying — many of them from vulnerable populations without access to cooling mechanisms,” Dr McMullen said.
“And we are seeing an increasing number of climate-driven disasters, which have an impact not just on people’s health but also on health infrastructure. To see this playing out we only need to look back to the Lismore floods that impacted general practitioners, pharmacists, and other health professionals, severely limiting their ability to deliver care to people.”
Dr McMullen said the impacts on health and infrastructure were highlighted at the AMA’s Rising temperatures, rising risks roundtable earlier this year.
“We heard some pretty harrowing stuff at that roundtable, including the impact not just on physical health but on mental health when temperatures rise, and the increasing number of young people ending up in hospital emergency rooms as a result.
“We also heard about the impacts of rising temperatures on First Nations peoples, together with the need to involve First Nations peoples in developing solutions.”
Climate change was also driving an increase in communicable and other diseases, Dr McMullen said.
“Diseases are influenced by warming temperatures, rainfall, and flooding, and we’ve seen this play out in Queensland following flooding with increasing cases of melioidosis.”
Dr McMullen welcomes the federal government’s commitments on climate change and called on the government to consider the impact on health in all areas of policy decision making.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the government on climate-related policies and strategies as the National Health and Climate Change Strategy is progressed.”
