Community health and climate change are intimately implicated

Prof Kate Auty.

The direct connection between community health and climate change became blatantly obvious at an indigenous two-day conference at Echuca about a year ago.

Victoria’s Commission for Environmental Sustainability, Professor Kate Auty, told those at the conference that the reported number of deaths from Victoria’s “Black Saturday” bushfires was about half that who died in the week leading up to the fires.

More than 170 people died in the February fires, but even more remarkably, and concerning according to Prof Auty, was the death of about double that number of heat related difficulties in the previous week.

Prof Auty, who has long advocated about indigenous concerns, was alarmed that the pre-bushfire deaths had almost passed unnoticed.

Interestingly the Echuca conference was about the response of indigenous people to climate change and it was there that Prof Auty took the opportunity to introduce the topic of community health and its direct and obvious connection to our damaged atmosphere.

The observations of Prof Auty was somewhat prescient as some are now arguing that the health implications of climate change should be a Federal Election iss

And just yesterday (July 22), The Conversation commented on that very issus in a story headed: “Why climate change should be a key issue this election”.

It said, “We have a planet to manage, not just a local economy. Climate change and its threat to human health, survival and social stability should be at the top of the election agenda – and with at least a hint of bipartisan understanding and strategic agreement.”