Impact of climate change on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Climate change has not only affected Australia, but is considered as a major global issue. While both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians are found to be the sufferer of climate change, the latter is more vulnerable to the adverse effect of climate change. Given the fact that the indigenous Australian are more dependent on their land and lacks proper infrastructure and technology to effectively deal with the natural calamities that takes place due to climate change, it becomes more difficult for them to deal with the same. In the following section, a detailed discussion on the impacts or potential impacts of climate change on the Indigenous population of Australia, has been done. Along with this, evaluation of the implication for policies and Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander health services, has also been done, in the following paragraphs.
One of the major impact of climate change on the indigenous population of Australian is the rise of climate sensitive disease. As per Hall et al. (2021), 5 climate sensitive diseases that are increasing in Torres Strait as well as Cape York region includes tuberculosis, dengue, Ross River virus, melioidosis and nontuberculous mycobacterial infection. Sudden surge of this diseases are imposing highly negative impact on the health and physical wellbeing of the indigenous population. The mortality rate in the affected regions has increased by more than 5.2 percent in the last 3 years.
Another major impact of the climate change on indigenous Australians includes loss of land and resources (Beggs & Zhang, 2018). Landslides, cyclone and other natural calamities are resulting in resulting in massive destruction in areas of Queens land and Torres Strait Islands. Loss of household due to cyclone is increasing the percentage of homeless indigenous population. This in turn is impacting their mental and physical wellbeing adversely. Nursey-Bray et al. (2019) have highlighted that the indigenous population of Australia is emotionally connected with their mother land and staying away from their own habitat impose highly negative impact not only on their mental health but also on their physical health. As a result of climate change the number of physical health issues like cardio vascular diseases, metabolic syndrome and other illnesses have got increased. In addition to this, the rate of mental illnesses like depression, anxiety disorders has also got enhanced amongst the population (Lansbury Hall & Crosby, 2022). All this are acting as major factors for enhancing the mortality rate amongst the indigenous population.
As per Zhang et al. (2018), climate change can be defined as the change in weather patterns as a result of the rising temperature on earth. When it comes to Australia, some of the major negative impacts of climate change includes rising sea level an dpotential flooding, increasing frequency of droughts, decreasing rainfall, more frequent and more devastating cyclones and bush fires.
Bowles (2015) has highlighted the Australian coastline is receding rapidly as a result of rising seas level and this is currently a major climate issue faced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders. Storm surges, greater king tides, along with increasing sea levels are swamping roads, graveyards, freshwater sources, and dwellings on the Torres Strait island of Masig. A significantly higher number of islands are projected towards becoming uninhabitable due to the region’s existing sea-level rise of 6–8 mm per year. While the past generations possessed the capability to more freely as well as adapt to climate change, the scope has become highly limited as a result of colonization.
Climate change issues or potential issues faced by Indigenous Australians
Storm surges, greater king tides, along with increasing sea levels are swamping roads, graveyards, freshwater sources, and dwellings on the Torres Strait island of Masig. A significantly higher number of islands are projected towards becoming uninhabitable due to the region’s existing sea-level rise of 6–8 mm per year.
According to Jones (2019), climate change has not only impose adverse impact on the life off the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander population individually, but it has also affected the community as a whole to a great extent. Climate change has resulted in massive threats to the cultures, livelihood, identities as well as ways of life off the indigenous Australians. The majority of indigenous peoples have a deep cultural tie with the environment, and their livelihoods are typically reliant on land as well as natural resources. Changing climate also has the potential to exacerbate their socioeconomic vulnerabilities.
Shaffril et al. (2020) have highlighted that the indigenous population of Australia are collective by nature. As a result of coastal storms, drought as well as rising of sea levels, the community members are compelled to get scattered. This in turn affecting their collectiveness and imposing negative impact on their culture. Loss of land and resources are imposing adverse impact on their mental wellbeing as well.
There are other intangible effects that are far more impossible to articulate and measure, like loss of connection and culture harming social as well as emotional wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander population.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders for dealing with difficult issues associated with the indigenous health. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, for instance, are being employed in Caring for Country programmers, which have a slew of social, historical, economical, and health advantages in addition to favorable environmental effects. These Indigenous Australian-led collaborations raise awareness and respect for traditional knowledge among the broader public and policymakers. Contemporary environmental and health policy and regulatory structures, on the other hand, provide substantial obstacles to implementing equity collaboration solutions to climate change mitigation.
Middleton et al. (2020) have highlighted that like other nations, Australia lacks a proper treaty as well as legal framework which enshrines the right of Indigenous Australian in spite of decades of advocacy. Inequitable power arrangements are a key source of uncertainty, limiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’ capacity to adapt to climate change and respond to threats.
Townsend, Moola and Craig (2020) however have highlighted that The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization (NACCHO) may possess the potential to help the indigenous Australians to enhance their ability to deal with the Changing climate. NACCHO offers policies as well as budget recommendations to Australia’s government, as well as pushing for society healthcare strategies that improve the standard of living as well as health outcomes for the indigenous population. However, Nursey-Bray and Palmer (2018) have highlighted that while a range of initiatives has been taken from the end of RACGP, none of the actions have shown major changes in the policies. It has been found that more and more active involvement of indigenous population is required along with assistance from the end of local and regional government to implement policies that can enhance the physical and mental wellbeing of the Indigenous Australian successfully (Pearce et al., 2018).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that sudden surge of this diseases are imposing highly negative impact on the health and physical wellbeing of the indigenous population. The mortality rate in the affected regions has increased by more than 5.2 percent in the last 3 years. There are other intangible effects that are far more impossible to articulate and measure, like loss of connection and culture harming social as well as emotional wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander population. Australia lacks a proper treaty as well as legal framework which enshrines the right of Indigenous Australian in spite of decades of advocacy.
References
Beggs, P. J., & Zhang, Y. (2018). The MJA–Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Australian policy inaction threatens lives (Summary). The Medical Journal of Australia, 209(11), 474-475.
Bowles, D. C. (2015). Climate change and health adaptation: Consequences for indigenous physical and mental health. Annals of Global Health, 81(3).
Hall, N. L., Barnes, S., Canuto, C., Nona, F., & Redmond, A. M. (2021). Climate change and infectious diseases in Australia’s Torres Strait Islands. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 45(2), 122-128.
Jones, R. (2019). Climate change and Indigenous health promotion. Global health promotion, 26(3_suppl), 73-81. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1757975919829713
Lansbury Hall, N., & Crosby, L. (2022). Climate change impacts on health in remote indigenous communities in Australia. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 32(3), 487-502. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09603123.2020.1777948
Middleton, J., Cunsolo, A., Jones-Bitton, A., Wright, C. J., & Harper, S. L. (2020). Indigenous mental health in a changing climate: a systematic scoping review of the global literature. Environmental Research Letters, 15(5), 053001. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab68a9/meta
Nursey-Bray, M., & Palmer, R. (2018). Country, climate change adaptation and colonisation: insights from an Indigenous adaptation planning process, Australia. Heliyon, 4(3), e00565. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844017332929
Nursey-Bray, M., Palmer, R., Smith, T. F., & Rist, P. (2019). Old ways for new days: Australian Indigenous peoples and climate change. Local Environment, 24(5), 473-486. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13549839.2019.1590325
Pearce, T. D., Rodríguez, E. H., Fawcett, D., & Ford, J. D. (2018). How is Australia adapting to climate change based on a systematic review?. Sustainability, 10(9), 3280. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3280/pdf
Shaffril, H. A. M., Ahmad, N., Samsuddin, S. F., Samah, A. A., & Hamdan, M. E. (2020). Systematic literature review on adaptation towards climate change impacts among indigenous people in the Asia Pacific regions. Journal of cleaner production, 258, 120595. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620306429
Townsend, J., Moola, F., & Craig, M. K. (2020). Indigenous Peoples are critical to the success of nature-based solutions to climate change. Facets, 5(1), 551-556. https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/facets-2019-0058?data-src=recsys
Zhang, Y., Beggs, P. J., Bambrick, H., Berry, H. L., Linnenluecke, M. K., Trueck, S., … & Capon, A. G. (2018). The MJA–Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Australian policy inaction threatens lives. Medical Journal of Australia, 209(11), 474-474.
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