Category: Climate change
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Rise in heatwaves and pressure on ambulance services
Mehak Oberai and Shannon Rutherford The increasing frequency of heatwaves in Australia has cast a light on the health impacts of extreme heat, and the subsequent burden placed on healthcare systems. Ambulance services, often the first entry point to the healthcare system for Australia, are one important indicator of the…
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Striking before it’s El Nino hot: raising awareness of older people’s heat health risks
Ella Jackman (Project Coordinator & Research Assistant), Mehak Oberai (Senior Research Assistant), Ethos (Extreme Heat and Older Persons) Project, and Associate Professor Shannon Rutherford, Griffith University Global temperatures have increased and are expected to continue increasing, due to the ongoing consequences of climate change. This warming will have unprecedented harms…
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Fracking in 2023? Our children’s health must come first.
Dr Louise Woodward, Paediatrician, Northern Territory Fracking makes our kids sick. It pollutes the air we breathe, the food we grow and the water we need to survive. It’s also driving harmful climate change. “First, do no harm” is a defining principle in medicine. A simple phrase to make doctors…
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Putting knowledge into action at the 2023 Greening the Healthcare Sector Forum
Climate and Health Alliance Australia’s annual sustainable healthcare conference, Greening the Health Care Sector will be held in Perth this year for the first time. From 14-15 September, hundreds of people interested in improving the environmental footprint of healthcare and aged care will congregate at Fiona Stanley Hospital to connect,…
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Vital for human survival: trees
Dr Rosalie Schultz, PHAA Environment and Ecology Special Interest Group member “Imagine if trees gave off Wifi signals. We would be planting so many trees and we’d probably save the planet too. Too bad they only produce the oxygen we breathe.” (Mudabbir Khalid in the Huffington Post, 2014). …
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How can we build a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient health system?
Ahmed Hasan, Amandi Hiyare, Priyanka Multani The second edition of Global Public Health Week is currently underway and will run from Monday the 3rd of April until Friday the 7th of April. Global Public Health Week is an initiative of the World Federation of Public Health Associations and the theme…
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Proposed polluting precinct set for Top End sparks concern for environment and health
Lily Pratt, PHAA Policy Officer, and Environment Centre NT Last week’s announcement that the Minister for the Environment and Water, Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, had formally rejected a proposed Central Queensland Coal Project due to environment-related concerns has drawn attention to other alarming projects on the horizon. During question time…
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Food, nutrition and climate: What was on the table at COP27?
Holley Jones, PHAA Food and Nutrition Special Interest Group member COP 27 in Egypt The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place in Egypt in November, with the intention to drive collaboration and enact commitments made in…
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An election on health lacking vision beyond hospitals: why Victoria must invest in Public Health and prevention
PHAA Victoria Prevention Subcommittee The PHAA’s Victorian branch, in partnership with the Australian Health Promotion Association and Australasian Epidemiological Association, have released their 2022 Victorian Election Scorecard. This assesses the policy platforms of the major parties – Labor, the Coalition (Liberal/National) and the Greens – against our joint Election Platform, which…
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Centre for Disease Control seen as key for tackling COVID and climate change
Introduction by Croakey: Last week’s decision by National Cabinet to end mandatory COVID-19 isolation and pandemic payments has sparked strong criticism from community and health groups concerned about the risk to some people. Many health leaders, community organisations and members of the public are concerned the decision will place additional strain…
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Our home, our body, our planet
By Takuzo Kimura, physiotherapist and volunteer with the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) Has your room ever gotten a little messier the week before an important deadline? In Japanese culture, there is a belief that the way someone’s home looks says a lot about their state of mind. The pressures…
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Climate action needed to protect public health
PHAA Intern Allyson Todd and PHAA Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser Malcolm Baalman Climate change poses one of the biggest threats to human health. The latest IPCC assessment report urges all nations to urgently take far greater climate change action to halve global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. This…
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Under-resourced and undermined: as floods hit south-west Sydney, our research shows councils aren’t prepared
Nicky Morrison, Western Sydney University and Patrick Harris, UNSW Sydney Thousands of people in south-western Sydney have been ordered to evacuate as extreme rain pummels the region and floodwaters rise rapidly. The downpour is expected to continue for days. This region, particularly Western Sydney, is no stranger to climate-related disasters.…
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ANZJPH study shows the benefits of heatwave warnings for our most vulnerable
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA As Australia swelters through another scorching summer, a new report published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (ANZJPH) reveals the economic and health benefits of heatwave warning systems. Already this summer, as of 25 January, Perth has broken heatwave records, with six…
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Be angry about politics in Australia, and vote thoughtfully
Dr Peter W Tait – PHAA I assume Malcolm Baalman’s questions: “Why do democratic governments keep letting their people suffer the impacts of climate disruption?” and “Since most of them are supposed to be democratic governments, advised by clear scientific advice, you have to ask why they keep on failing”…
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How nurses can help fight climate change
Dr Aletha Ward – University of Southern Queensland Nurses have been frontline in the pandemic response, demonstrating leadership in communicating science to our communities. However, another crisis is unfolding which calls for leadership from nurses, the largest healthcare profession in the healthcare industry. Our emerging climate crisis, labelled as a…
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Why do democratic governments keep letting their people suffer the impacts of climate disruption?
Malcolm Baalman – PHAA The circus that was the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow has come and gone. The results in terms of protecting the health of the world’s people look like being, well, just about net zero. COP26 – more accurately, the 26th annual conference of the 197 member…
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Study tracks sun protection behavioural changes as world meets for COP26 climate summit
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA For the first time in nearly two years the world’s attention is about to switch from the battle against COVID-19 to the fight to control global warming. World leaders will gather in Glasgow in the next week for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also…
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What’s in the WHO’s COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health?
Anna Alex – PHAA intern Leading up to COP26 in Glasgow next week, the World Health Organisation has released a special report, the Health Argument for Climate Action, outlining 10 recommendations made by the global health community for Heads of States to consider as priority areas and actionable points. The…
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Is the Australian Government doing enough to counter the impacts of climate change on Torres Strait Islander communities?
Anna Alex – PHAA intern Back in May 2019, a group of Torres Strait Islanders lodged a landmark climate and human rights case with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Submitted by a group dubbed the Torres Strait 8, the claimants say the Australian Government breached their human rights by…
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Say it loud and clear: Climate change is a health problem
Alex Hewish and Remy Shergill – Climate And Health Alliance Climate change. The average Australian is aware that the world is warming up due to more greenhouse gases in our air, trapping heat. Yet many don’t know of the effects that climate change will have on our health – effects…
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Forum calls for health to be the main driver for climate action
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA In responding to COVID-19, governments everywhere, including in Australia, have dropped the ball on protecting the health of its citizens by taking their eye off the growing climate change crisis. This was one of the clear messages from last week’s Better Futures Forum, a three-day…
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Mental health and adaptation to climate change
Dr Fiona Robards, Co-Convenor Mental Health Special Interest Group, PHAA Climate change presents an existential threat. It is almost unbelievable that we may be confronting the breakdown of civilisation and human extinction. For parents, the prospect of their children experiencing predicted hardship can be particularly unthinkable. The public is becoming…
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Coordinating a response to bushfire and climate change crisis
By David Templeman, former Director General of Emergency Management Australia and President of the Public Health Association Australia As states across Australia slowly lift COVID-19 restrictions and we inch closer to ‘normal’ every day, there is a cautious sense of triumph that we may have survived a public health emergency.…
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The earth is breathing easier
Major cities and their birds are breathing easier. Across China, smog has given way to the colour blue. Even the snow-capped Himalayas are visible from parts of Northern India for the first time in local’s memories.