Climate+Change+and+Health+-+The+End+of+The+World+as+We+Know+It?

** N6330029 **
**Tutor: Emily Mann**

Global warming has come to the forefront of media and Government attention in recent times. With the addition of the Carbon Tax, the measured increase of temperatures across the globe and noted Government actions based upon reducing its’ effects. One notable feature of Climate Change that is shown little regard is the effect it has upon the health of society. While the Greens party pays due to the health effects by designing policies intended to be productive in the changing nature of health, governing parties continue to ignore the prospect of ever increasing health risks caused by Climate Change.

media type="youtube" key="Z0GFRcFm-aY" height="315" width="420" align="center"

** Artefact ** This film clip is of the song It’s The End of The World by R.E.M. released in 1987. The song discusses how the world is changing and the different effects it has upon everyone and everything. The apocalyptic lyrics describe an intense awareness of the ignorance society displays towards these issues. The lyrics also observe human and natural environments together, coexistent in their demise. Ultimately, while the author may be fine with “the end of the world as we know it”, society cannot be numb to the changes we face, or we will indeed see the end of the world.

** Public Health Issue ** In order to discover the effects of climate change upon the health of Australians, this discussion will look at several issues impacting the future of health services in Australia. The actions being taken for the health system to adapt to the long term need for change, how prepared the governing parties are to allow this to happen, and the actions taken by the Greens political party in order to limit climate change’s effects, how prepared the governing parties are to allow this to happen. As the World Health Organization (WHO) (2009) states reducing global warming and climate change can ultimately be good for health, environment and the economy.

** Literature Review ** Current research is following the public health issues Climate Change has developed across the world. Many researchers and scientists address the actions being undertaken by the health community in order to adapt to the vulnerability caused by the environmental hazard that is climate change across the globe. As the Australian Medical Students’ Association (2011) discusses, “climate change and health are inseparable,” and advocating for change in health also means concurrently campaigning for meaningful change on climate change.

media type="youtube" key="CqMaDc4G_vs" height="360" width="640" align="center"

In the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, Frumkin and McMichael (2008) investigate the ways in which society needs to form long term plans to address the health impacts of climate change. They note that current Western medicine is based upon controlled environment research and as such we are not prepared for the “unusual scale and complexity of the health risks” that climate change represents. It is also acknowledged that fear and indifference are not ideal policy factors, and governing parties should deliver policies that demonstrate smarter, long-term solutions in the form of adaption and mitigation. Simple change measures are addressed to halt the effects of climate change, such as planting more trees and eating less meat, reducing travel and transport, and smarter energy policies. However, the authors note that communication and action are key parts of adapting health the climate change. By addressing climate change issues, therein lies the potential to co-benefit in health, society and the environment.

Cooney (2011) writes in her article in the Environmental Health Perspective, examining the way Chicago has adopted a principle of adapting to change and acknowledging that climate change will affect the health of its population. By bringing together scientists, academics and city agencies, the city of Chicago has developed a sustainable program that adapts to the effects of climate change. Acknowledging that it will affect their city, they are able to adapt to worsening air pollution, increased rainfall and increasing infectious diseases. However, Cooney also notes that adaptive policies take time and commitment to implement. Often the implications of more immediate priorities; lack of knowledge and chronic need of more resources means the programs are implemented incorrectly and half-heartedly. She finds in conclusion that public health has the potential to make climate change and health a very community aware problem, all it takes is getting a voice to share that human health is at threat.

Campbell-Lendrum, Corvalan, Haines and Kovats (2006) investigate the ways climate change is affecting public health, through heat waves, drought and vector borne diseases. In their article in Public Health, they discuss the methods of which to counteract these increasing threats to the health of society. Through public health education, emergency preparedness, risk assessments for extreme environment events and health warning systems. However they note that in order for any proposals and implementations to be successful, there are several hurdles to overcome, especially in low-income countries and low socio-economic areas of developed countries. With the effects of climate change already visible, there is drastic need to address the vulnerabilities of human health and intervene with long-term viable solutions.

The Milankovitch Theory (Hays, Imbrie and Shackleton, 1976) is focused around the effects of Earth’s orbit around the sun upon climate change. The theory suggests that seasons can be accentuated by the changes in the planet’s tilt and orbit. This theory also shows that for the next 10,000 years the global orbit will be almost circular, meaning that no extremely cold summer will occur for that period. As such we can expect warmer temperatures to stay constant or increase for the understandable future as described by the National Climatic Data Centre (2009). However in disagreement with this theory, Hergerl and Zwiers (2008) find that climate change and global warming is directly consistent with human-induced greenhouse gases and physical destruction of resources. They also acknowledge it is unlikely the correspondence between impacts and climate change would occur if the environmental variants were as a result of natural change.

With climate change is at the forefront of collective society, through introduced policies and taxes designed to address the developing health and environmental hazards, Governments are beginning to act. Yet most governing parties are not committed to long-term solutions across the entire socio-economic spectrum. The Greens Party (2011) has designed policies to actively support mitigation and adaption internationally. Through sustainable use of energy, establishing binding emissions targets and helping other pacific nations to achieve zero targets, the Greens Party is targeting climate change in a direct manner designed to reduce the impacts upon the health and economy of Australia and surrounding nations as soon as possible.

Currently methodology for change and adaption to the effects of climate change is shown to have the potential to affect the hazards to human health. The experiences of Cooney (2011) in Chicago show that effective change is possible and essentially beneficial to all areas of society. Yet Campbell-Lendrum et al., (2006) show that the limitations in implementing changes on global scales are often related to low socio-economic areas and poorer nations. Where lack of knowledge and funding, along with higher incidence of chronic disease means change is much harder to implement on a long-term basis. The WHO (2009) describes actions to protect health from climate change, citing adaptive capacity as an incisive method towards avoiding and controlling the health impacts of climate change. Ultimately, climate change is affecting all of us today, and the literature available to us proves that now is the time to implement change.

** Cultural and Social Analysis **

As the literature represents, the relationship between climate change and public health directly represents a hazard to the health of society. Culture, along with society, plays an extensive role in the development of climate change and the effects it has upon health. With the increased need for resources due to the steady growth of the global population, and the consistent view in developed countries that ‘more is better’, the strain placed upon the environment continues to increase.

Influentially, it is these developed countries’ need for more possessions to prove their standing in society that is causing more health problems in third world countries. Among the effects are rising sea levels affecting small island nations, increased epidemics in countries where immunisations and treatments are not easily accessible, and increased exposure to dirty and infectious water sources across poorer nations due to increased rainfall and flooding (WHO, 2010).

Through highly divergent ways of thinking and principled beliefs across the globe, international climate change decisions are hard fought and often starkly unequal (Parks and Roberts, 2010). Noticeably, despite the human cost implicated with climate change, and more than two decades of dire warnings from scientists, Government leaders continue to form differing answers, all without substantial results. It is these cultural differences that continue to plague the international community’s response to climate change and the effect it has on the health of individual societies.

While cultures shape climates, similarly climates shape cultures. Contemporary human life is ever more affected by the changes we experience in the climate (Ford, 2011). From country to country, and as is becoming more visible, from state to state, climate shapes the way society reacts to and associates with the changes we encounter. For these reasons it is essential we integrate the beliefs and cultural developments of all in order to design and create the best inclusive policies to combat the effects of climate change internationally. While there is an ultimate lack of collectivist notion visible within the international community, the association between human and natural environments is forever entwined. For this reason we must allow the overwhelming need for global adaption to climate change to suppress the different cultural notions that continue to be expressed.

From a societal perspective, developed nations have the means and abilities to address climate change and the public health issues that arise from it. However, the western desire to have more possessions than your neighbour has created a cultural divide between those causing climate change, and those being affected by it. We have also developed an existential relationship in an increasingly unequal world, thus creating a sharp divide between those in power and those without modern ‘necessities’. To this end, Australians must find it pertinent to not only achieve a society able to adapt to climate change for themselves, but also for the nations inversely affected by climate change.

** Artefact and Learning Reflections **

A large part of the issues represented above can be seen in the earlier mentioned cultural artefact. The world is changing, and with it a large part of the global population remains apathetic towards it. However, the potential for change is drastically increasing, with world leaders methodology in adapting to the effects of climate change greatly improved. Along with societies growing understanding of the changes occurring, the public opinion is turning in favour of responding to the needs of health in the face of climate change. The song portrays many of today’s cultural issues in a rapid and incisive manner, showing that many of the issues represented with its release in 1987 still exist today.

As part of society in which the health effects of climate change are only beginning to be seen, I was largely unaware of how societies need for material objects causes significant health issues across third world nations. I was taken aback as to the impending nature of these health issues becoming a part of day to day life in developed countries as we continue to abuse fossil fuels and the environment. I have seen that a Green response is able to develop strategies to adapt to the changing nature of the environment and health. I am continuing to find that this is an issue within society that can no longer be ignored. As a community we must act so as not to see ‘the end of the world as we know it’. The time to implement change is now, because the clock is ticking, and our health is at risk to climate change.

** References **

Australian Medical Students’ Association. (2011). Code Green: AMSA’s Climate Change Policy. Retrieved October 26, 2011 from: [].

Australian Medical Students’ Association. (2011). Code Green: AMSA’s Climate Change Policy [Video File]. Retrieved October 26, 2011 from: []. Also available from: []

Campbell-Lendrum, D., Corvalan, C., Haines, A. and Kovats, R. (2006). Climate change and human health: impacts, vulnerability and public health. Public Health, 120(7), 585-596. Retrieved from ScienceDirect.

Cooney, C. M. (2011). Preparing a People: Climate Change and Public Health. Environmental Health Perspectives, 119(4), A166-A171. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

EMI Music. (2009, March 15). R.E.M. – It’s The End of The World [Video File]. Retrieved from: []

Ford, T. (2011). The Cultural History of Climate Change. Australian National University. Retrieved from: []

Frumkin, H. and McMichael, A. (2008). Climate Change and Public Health: Thinking, Communicating, Acting. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 35(5), 403-410. Retrieved from ScienceDirect.

Greens Party of Australia. (2011). Climate change and energy: policies. Retrieved November 1, 2011 from: []

Hays, J., Imbrie, J. and Shackleton, N. (1976). Variations in the Earth’s Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages. Science, 194(4270), 1121-1132.

Hergerl, G. and Zwiers, F. (2008). Climate change: attributing cause and effect. Nature, 453, 296-298.

National Climatic Data Centre. (2009). Astronomical Theory of Climate Change. Retrieved from: []

Parks, B. and Roberts, J. (2010). Climate Change: Social Theory and Justice. Theory, Culture and Society, 27(2-3), 134-166.

World Health Organization. (2010). Gender, Climate Change and Health. Retrieved from: []

World Health Organization. (2009). Protecting health from climate change. Retrieved October 28, 2011 from: []

Comments:

Ben Dickson,

The issue you have addressed with relation to musical 'superstars' and the effect their product has on the youth of society is a truly epic problem. The way your artefact so clearly contradicts society's view of binge drinking is so obvious, yet also so prevalent in our culture. Whether it is the effect of Australian culture on Generation Y or the effects of artists such as LMFAO, binge drinking is a raging discussion point across society. The issues you have raised and the manner in which they apply to our culture is not only eye opening, but also cause for change. I hope that Generation Y understand the implications of drinking in such a manner and adopt a healthier attitude to drinking regardless of who is telling them what is socially acceptable!

Amie Henderson,

This discussion of the need of Generation Y to base their lives in a consumer state is not only intricately descriptive, yet also follows keenly developed ideas in addressing the state of media based consumerism. By linking to Fight Club, you have shown how we can become an aspect of the things we have instead of who we are. Your discussion of the falsification of individual identity in order to be perceived better by society highly illustrates this. In addition, your final quote from Tyler Durden displays the movie’s innate ability to comment upon society’s current attitude to materialistic needs. Well done!

Jack Van den Heuvel