Consequences of Climate Change on Aboriginal People in Australia
Climate change is undoubtedly the most pressing need of the present time for people around earth irrespective of where they are, what they do, or their socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, or religious background (Hall et al., 2021). It refers to the fact of changes in the overall pattern of the global climate due to human actions and rise in the earth’s average temperature over a period of time that is undesirably high, to the extent where it is capable of creating an adversely threating situation for habitation of humans and other creatures on earth (Silcock, 2018). Scientists and environmentalists attribute climate change due to global warming that is generated out of excessive use of fossil-fuels and carbon footprints due to human actions or mandatory necessities (Altman & Jordan, 2018). However, there are marked impact of climate change on the Aboriginal Australians and this will be discussed on the course of the paper. The paper aims to provide discussions on how climate change impacts the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islanders.
Climate change and its far reaching consequences concerning the Aboriginal Australians is a matter of grave concern (Silcock, 2018). The Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander community has been suffering from the negative impact of climate change and its precursor, global warming since the past three decades in particular (Nash et al., 2018). These impacts are more common to the community that lives in rural and riparian areas which is very common concerning the terrain and geographical position of Australia (Nursey-Bray et al., 2019). Changes in patterns of climate has not spared the Aboriginal Australians of coastal and rural areas of impacts of the past couple of cyclones form the last two 20 years are taken into consideration (Lansbury & Crosby, 2022). Frequent cyclones, over-precipitation, and associated consequences are noted largely due to climate change and human activities in exacerbating the temperature equilibrium of the world (lowitja.org.au, 2022). The “United Nations Association of Australia” have pondered on that issue and managed to reach out to the government with more stable and compact response plans to mitigation and redressal of extreme weather events, forest fires, and damage of the coral reefs, cyclones, land degradation, soil erosion, and events of deaths due to thunder strikes (Yu et al., 2020). The “Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs)” has worked with federal and state ministries and bureaucrats on the field but nature is far more powerful than human efforts (Network, 2021). This is a time where nature is avenging the misdeeds created by humans concerning the last couple of decades after rapid urbanization, unsustainable mining, deforestation, draining natural resources, and misuse of freshwater, soil, and fresh air in the name of industrialization (Parise, 2018). As per the “National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization (NACCHO)”, there are numerous forms and types of impact of climate change on the Aboriginal Australians (health.wa.gov.au, 2022).
Major concerns of climate change and its consequences in Western Australia is based on the impact on the Aboriginal community in terms of health and social determinants of health (SDHs) (Nash et al., 2018). Climate change has negatively impacted of SDHs such as employment, education, age and work, culture, and how people are grow up (Altman & Jordan, 2018). In these regions, major challenges of health of the Aboriginal Australians are concerned in the direction of rapid and perpetual bushfires, droughts, and heat waves during afternoon that catered to numerous deaths of the people of the community as high as over 1200 in the last year which is supposed to be more due to availability of lack of proper data and social audit (McDonald, 2021). Large numbers people of the Aboriginal Community dwelling in the coastal Australian regions are at high risk of habitat loss, death or exodus due to perceived threats (Altman & Jordan, 2018). Fishing and associated marine or riparian economic activities of the people in coastal Australia are adversely impacted by global warming and the consequent rise in sea-level (Parise, 2018). Increasing impacts of such trends are not a new concept in the region but it is indeed being continuously happening ever since the late 1990s which has been exacerbated since the last decade. Saltwater inundation, erosion of soil, and inland floods are also negative results of climate change on the Aboriginal Community (Silcock, 2018).
Negative Effects on Social and Cultural Determinants of Health
Another perspective of the adverse impact of climate change on Aboriginal Community is another common concern (Hall et al., 2021). It leads to massive emigration of the people of the community due to rapid urbanization, mining contracts of the miners, and threats of deforestation (Pearce et al., 2018). SDHs have also negatively impacted the Aboriginal Australians particularly due to distribution of resources and power, poverty, incomer, education, social relationships, educational conditions, and employment and housing (Birch, 2016). The dark history of colonization is also deemed to be a superior force of disservice than climate change on Aboriginal Australians concerning the atrocities, oppression, abuse, torture, and utter sense of barbarism (Saintilan et al., 2019). Frequent damage to the stability of the ecosystem by the seashores also caters to hike in essential commodities, water, housing, and inflation in the region at large (Nursey-Bray & Palmer, 2018). Moreover, steps and initiatives in the place has been disserved the lives of the community which states the very nature of the so-called hypocritical Australian welfare state. Broader social initiatives, actions by the government, and ensuring proper means of price stability, supply, and protection of the very ecosystem so that it favours the habitation and sustenance of the Aboriginal community needs to be assessed rigorously (Hall et al., 2021).
Impact of heavy rains and the consequent flooding are another major banes of climate change on the Aboriginal Australians (Pearce et al., 2018). In this direction, access to roads, supplies of essential goods, food grains, vegetables, and lifesaving medicines are also impacted and often people of the community are otherwise adversely impacted by global warming (Saintilan et al., 2019). Access to primary and secondary healthcare becomes also an issue to due to heavy precipitation and inundated situations which furthers many diseases like influenza, cholera, malaria, dysentery, liver ailments, respiratory, and inflammatory illness aggravated by prolonged rains and lack of medical intervention or support (Parise, 2018). Concerning the case of the Kimberly region, since 2017, frequent and recurrent rains have contributed to adverse health of the Aboriginal Australians (Nursey-Bray et al., 2019). Hence, on a large scale, SDHs, inflation, roadblocks, disruption of supply chains, and water-borne disease spiked in the region due to lack of adequate infrastructure, and planning for swift disaster response (Sovacool, 2021). Moreover, increasing extreme temperature events, sunstrokes, deaths due to thunderbolt, high propensity of power cuts, snake bites, and rapid change of temperature caters to adverse health of the Aboriginal Australians (Network, 2021). Furthermore, indoor dampness, increased wind, storms, asthma and dyspnoea attacks, and prolonged dampness caters to disserve respiratory health of the already economically poor Aboriginal Australians (Charles, 2020).
Conclusion
The paper discussed how climate change impacts the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islanders. The Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander community has been suffering from the negative impact of climate change and its precursor, global warming since the past three decades in particular. These impacts are more common to the community that lives in rural and riparian areas which is very common concerning the terrain and geographical position of Australia. Climate change has negatively impacted of SDHs such as employment, education, age and work, culture, and how people are grow up. In these regions, major challenges of health of the Aboriginal Australians are concerned in the direction of rapid and perpetual bushfires, droughts, and heat waves during afternoon. Active intervention by the government bodies and NGOs are need of the hour with proper means and infrastructural capacity building in terms of disaster management, quick disaster response, proper supply of essential goods, food, water, and medicines even during the time of adverse climatic events are ways ahead. In addition to that, setting up early evacuation system with early warning processes, management of energy during floods or thunderstorms, health promotion, and generating awareness among the Aboriginal Australians regarding the significance of staying healthy are plausible options to mitigate the impact of climate change on the community.
References
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