Climate Change Impacts on Health in Remote Indigenous Communities in Australia

ABSTRACT

Human-induced climate change in Australia is affecting the frequency and intensity of extreme events, including bushfires, cyclones and drought. Human health is affected by these climate impacts through direct impacts which include injuries and death from extreme events; indirect impacts through natural system changes such as impacts on water, food and air; and indirect impacts on human systems including mental health, productivity, and damage to housing and health-care facilities. Remote settlements are vulnerable to these climate impacts and associated health impacts due to isolated location, quality of the infrastructure, economic resources, limited transport, and existing health vulnerabilities that enable resilience or vulnerability. Remote Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable. This research sought to identify vulnerabilities of human health of residents in remote Indigenous communities to human-induced climate change to contribute to adequate responses of prevention and preparation.

KEYWORDS:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
• climate change
• burden of disease
• remoteness

Declaration of interest statement

The authors have nothing to declare.

Data availability statement

There is no dataset associated with this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by [University name withheld] new academic start-up funding to consider human health impacts from human-induced climate change;The University of Queensland [Academic start-up grant];