Impacts of Climate Change on Indigenous Health
Title: Indigenous Health and Climate Change Essay
By environmental disruptions, increasing population, and reduced maintenance potential, climate change can have an influence on both the sustainability of health system structures and the efficacy of service operations. Due to climatic extremes and isolation, health care services in rural places are particularly vulnerable. In one of the reports, it was mentioned that climate change significantly impacts on the health be it physical or psychological. The prevalence of the diseases may vary from geographic location to other (cdc.gov, 2022). According to the World health organization (2021), changes in climate largely affects the environmental determinants along with social determinants of the health, which includes safe drinking water, pure and clean air, adequate food and safe housing. In this study, the focus would be on the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island, Australia who are more vulnerable to the climate change’s impacts (Ford, 2012).
In Australian health settings, Aboriginal and Torres strait islander very often encounter poorer health as well as very lower expectancy of life comparing to the other Australian population (Durey & Thompson, 2012). Because of the economic and social position, chronic health issues, restricted health care services, and disruption to customary relationships to Country, the health effects of global climate change on Aboriginal population living in rural areas are significantly greater. When the expected implications of changing climate in Australia’s far northern are examined with the region’s distinctive ecological, social, and cultural qualities, Torres Strait populations is one of the most vulnerable (betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2022). Few issues associated with climate change that in turn affect the health of the indigenous people are: increasing sea levels and potential flooding, an elevation in temperature and droughts that cause poor farming. Moreover, due to climate change, extreme weather events like floods and fires, levels of rainfall are decreasing, elevation in non-native species as well as reduction in known species, and increasing disease risk and death because of increasing temperature among aboriginals are very common (Lansbury Hall & Crosby 2022).
People from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island’s communities in Australia are specifically exposed to the climate change’s impact. Rising temperatures will minimize the amount of the bush tucker as well as other natural foods that are available to indigenous Australians in rural/ remote regions of the nation (healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au, 2022). Increase in the sea level in the coastal locations may force people to abandon their homes. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have strong ties to their homeland, and this is particularly critical given this, and it might contribute to poor mental health as well as other social issues. Extreme weather events like floods and cyclones severely impair infrastructure in remote indigenous Australian communities, keeping people off from supplies for long periods of time (betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2022).
Since this majority of the people of indigenous community have a deep cultural association with the environment along with, they are largely depended on land as well as natural resources to satisfy their subsistence requirements, changes in climate poses a significant danger to their livelihoods, traditions, personalities, and ways of life. Aboriginal Australians have the best understanding of the unique aspects of exposure related to climate change and susceptibility (Shepherd et al., 2017). Traditional food customs, which are important to many indigenous groups throughout the world, promote a variety of climate-related health effects. For coastal area people, there is a solid evidence grasp of these connections, with sea level change already limiting food supply, with consequences for cultural and physical well-being. Inflammatory illnesses linked with the processing and transportation of traditional foods (such as food-borne botulism, gastroenteritis), zoonotic diseases (such as giardiasis), along with traditional herbs or treatments may be affected by rising temperatures (Ford, 2012).
Vulnerabilities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities
In Australia, changing of climate has resulted in greater temperatures, extreme droughts, fire breakouts, flooding, and more weather extremes. As sea levels are rising, incidents grow more extreme, presenting a threat to buildings and infrastructure.
Throughout their traditional territories, peoples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands had free access to food and clean drinking water, and they utilized these resources sustainably, following the environment’s lead and attempting to protect it for succeeding generations. These ancient knowledge and experiences have been disseminated as tradition and cultural practice, offering a code for maintaining harmony with one another, with Country, and with other human organisms for millennia via processes of observation, understanding, and adaptation. Climate change significantly impacted the life, culture, identity and lifestyle of the Aboriginal Australian communities, as the majority of the people of indigenous community have close cultural relationships with the environment and often rely on land and other natural resources for their livelihoods (Shepherd et al., 2017). Poses a serious threat to the world. Indigenous concerns in the region include species changes as well as availability of known or traditional food sources, awareness of poor weather forecasts, travel safety in changing ice as well as weather conditions, and human health. And poses a serious challenge to food security (Ford, 2012).
Indigenous peoples, especially Aboriginal Australians, have adapted to as well as responded to climate change in the past. For decades and centuries, Indigenous Australians have resided in Australia. Aboriginal Australians have been watching and adjusting to environment and ecological changes for hundreds of years as part of this continuing settlement. It also provided them with a one-of-a-kind capacity to react to natural climate change. Although these groups’ traditions have evolved through time, there is still traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) from which local and indigenous populations can profit today (Finn et al., 2017). Indigenous peoples do not have many chances or platforms to affect and lead to the development of existing regional and international climate change adaption policies.
In Australia, indigenous population are often face extreme difficulties in accessing the essential health services because of the number of health barriers, which includes a greater cost of the health care, experiencing racism, discrimination from the service providers as well as a major communication gap with the health care professionals (Conway et al., 2017). Evidence indicated that when the essential services are customized to the requirements of the aboriginal communities, or when they are owned as well as managed by aboriginal communities themselves, accessibility to primary health care can be enhanced.
Indigenous peoples’ medical services found to be best suited for overcoming both the social as well as cultural determinants of the health that prevent the indigenous peoples from accessing the essential medical care (Davy et al., 2016). According to the Australian Ministry of Health, the government is working with the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands for developing as well as implement the policies, programs along with various initiatives to improve health and well-being (health.gov.au, 2022). To enhance the health of the aboriginal peoples, a National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan was developed, that ensure that a comprehensive policy framework can significantly address the barriers to improve the indigenous peoples’ health (health.gov.au, 2022).
Conclusion
Climate change is the life, culture, and of the Australian Aboriginal community, as the majority of indigenous communities have strong cultural ties to the environment and often rely on land and natural resources for their livelihoods. It has a great influence on identity and lifestyle. Climate change has a major impact on the social determinants and environmental factors of health, including clean drinking water, clean air, adequate food and safe housing. Some of the problems associated with climate change that affect the health of indigenous peoples are the potential for rising sea levels and floods, rising temperatures and droughts leading to poor agriculture. Traditional food processing and transport-related inflammatory diseases (such as food-borne botulism, gastroenteritis) along with zoonotic diseases (like giardiasis) are prevalent among indigenous peoples due to climate change. are doing.
Reference
Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. (2022). Climate change – Environmental Health – Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. Retrieved 22 April 2022, from https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/learn/determinants-of-health/environmental-health/climate-change/.
Betterhealth.vic.gov.au. (2022). Climate change and health – Better Health Channel. Betterhealth.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 22 April 2022, from https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/climate-change-and-health.
cdc.gov. (2022). Climate Effects on Health. cdc.gov. Retrieved 22 April 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/effects/default.htm.
Conway, J., Tsourtos, G., & Lawn, S. (2017). The barriers and facilitators that indigenous health workers experience in their workplace and communities in providing self-management support: a multiple case study. BMC health services research, 17(1), 319. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2265-5
Davy, C., Harfield, S., McArthur, A., Munn, Z., & Brown, A. (2016). Access to primary health care services for Indigenous peoples: A framework synthesis. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0450-5
Durey, A., & Thompson, S. C. (2012). Reducing the health disparities of Indigenous Australians: time to change focus. BMC health services research, 12(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-12-151
Finn, S., Herne, M., & Castille, D. (2017). The Value of Traditional Ecological Knowledge for the Environmental Health Sciences and Biomedical Research. Environmental health perspectives, 125(8), 085006. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP858
Ford J. D. (2012). Indigenous health and climate change. American journal of public health, 102(7), 1260–1266. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2012.300752
https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health/how-we-support-health
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://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2020.1777948
Shepherd, S. M., Delgado, R. H., Sherwood, J., & Paradies, Y. (2018). The impact of indigenous cultural identity and cultural engagement on violent offending. BMC public health, 18(1), 1-7.
Who.int. (2021). Climate change and health. Who.int. Retrieved 22 April 2022, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health.
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