Our health system isn't built for climate change |
We are in the midst of another Australian heatwave.
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This is likely to mean increased emergency room presentations in the coming days and a spike in mortality in the coming weeks.
The impact of extreme heat is particularly relevant for cardiologists like myself, but also across the hospital - from general medicine and surgery to orthopaedics.
Heat can seriously affect our physical health and mental health. We should expect that many of us will become crankier and more argumentative over the coming days. Family and partner violence is more likely during a heatwave, particularly when nights are hot.
Our climate is changing. Temperature records continue to be broken.
The release of Australia's first National Climate Risk Assessment confirms that extreme climate hazards are intensifying and becoming more frequent.
We live through heat, fire, drought, floods and storms of increasing intensity.
Through extreme weather events, changes to vector-borne disease patterns and reduced food and water quality and security, climate change will affect our health and wellbeing in many ways.
From trauma, injury and falls, from dehydration and heat stroke to heart failure, lung infections and complications in pregnancy, the environment around us has a direct bearing on our health.
I saw first hand the serious danger to health posed by the 2019-2020 bushfires, which included respiratory and cardiac presentations from smoke exposure and the social and psychological damage wrought by a terrible, hot and smoky summer.
Extreme heat is a major and growing hazard in Australia, with hotter summers driving increasing........