Bodies and minds are also affected by climate change just like sea ice and forests, according to University of Alberta scientist Sherilee Harper.
“Climate change impacts everything we care about,” she said. “It’s not just an environmental issue.”
That’s why Harper, along with around 30 colleagues from various fields such as economics and epidemiology, have formed what she calls Canada’s first university hub to shift the perspective of climate change from an environmental problem to a threat to human health.
“The hub aims to help people understand that every climate change decision has an impact on health,” said Harper, a professor in the School of Public Health and a vice-chair on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading scientific body on the issue.
“Every climate change research project has health implications.”
Take bike lanes, for example.
City planners see them as a means to reduce car emissions. However, biking also enhances health.
“There’s a lot of power in presenting climate change as a health issue,” Harper said. “Research indicates that framing it as a health problem inspires more action than framing it as an environmental or economic issue.”
Canada is warming at twice the global average rate, and extensive research already shows that rising temperatures are leading to health problems.
In a 2022 report, the Public Health Agency of Canada referred to climate change as “the single biggest health threat facing humanity and the livability of the planet.”
During the last summer, wildfire smoke caused Canada to experience some of the world's worst air quality, harming lung function, particularly in children. Diseases such as Lyme disease and West Nile are spreading as their carrying parasites take advantage of new habitats. Warmer waters are fostering increased bacteria, leading to more instances of diarrhea.
There are also mental health effects, from the acute stress experienced by those forced to flee fires to the prevailing sense of loss and sorrow as people mourn an altered familiar environment. Often, the physical and mental effects occur simultaneously, compounding each other.
And Harper’s own experience after last year’s wildfires will sound familiar to many.
“I have two young kids. We were stuck inside all summer. That was really hard.”
The threats are global.
The World Health Organization estimates that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is predicted to result in about 250,000 additional deaths annually from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress.
The Climate Change and Health Hub will be officially announced on Tuesday at an event featuring Canada’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Theresa Tam. It will mainly consist of a network of scientists, First Nations knowledge keepers, and students who recognize the need for such interdisciplinary work and intend to exchange ideas and research.
Similar hubs already exist in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, according to Harper.
She mentioned that the hub in Alberta will do more than just serve as a discussion space for experts. It will also engage with the public and promote certain causes.
In this age of misinformation, it is important to have a place that can encourage evidence-based advocacy. This means providing evidence so that politicians can make decisions based on it.
According to Harper, the hub will fill a significant gap in Canada's climate change research community.
Harper stated that while research on climate change is happening, it lacks cohesion and researchers are not collaborating. Climate change involves a wide range of disciplines.
