Australia’s vulnerability to climate change effects has been more than obvious in the past weeks. The State of Queensland is currently 62 per cent under water, according to Prime Minister Rudd, since cyclone Ellis crossed the North-West coast of the country earlier this week. Road and rail links, and many towns, have been cut off by the floods as the AU$ 100 million damage bill continues to rise.

Australia is undoubtedly worthy of its reputation of country of extremes. While Queensland is flooded, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania are experiencing their highest temperatures on record. ‘The worst heat wave to strike Australia in a century is due to climate change’ was the blunt message from the Government in the past days, as the country struggles to cope with the heat-related chaos, including buckling rail lines, numerous heat related deaths and sweeping power blackouts. (SMH 6/02/09). It seems that the country’s infrastructures and services struggle to deal with the situation. It is clear that the current public transport system water supply system and the health services are stretched to their limits. Weather watchers warn that Australians will have to get used to more heat waves after the record-setting temperatures that have scorched the country’s south-east so far this year. Professor David Karoly of the University of Melbourne claims that “the system can’t cope now, and it is just going to get much worse.”

The hot, dry and windy conditions (in addition to the stupidity of a few arsonists) are the explosive ingredients currently causing massive and deadly fires in the South-east of the country (ABC 07/02/09). To many people, Australia is sitting on a time bomb when it comes to bushfires. Indeed, researchers say bushfires can release as much carbon pollution as the whole of industry combined, while they are not officially counted towards Australia’s emissions. The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre  (established by the Government and currently investigating the issue) says the problem will snowball because climate change will cause more bushfires, which will release more carbon pollution, which makes climate change worse. According to Mark Adams, a University of Sydney researcher, a bad fire could release 30 million tones of carbon into the atmosphere. In a bad fire year the scale of emissions from forest fires in southern Australia was of the same order as industrial emissions. Wildfires can then produce ‘step’ increases in global atmospheric CO2, undermining international efforts to tackle climate change. There is no doubt that the international community should include emissions from forests in a post-Kyoto climate pact. In addition, serious effort needs to be done in terms of forest management and burn-offs strategies in order to minimise the risk of bushfires.

 Thinking about climate change effects, we often picture disastrous environmental consequences, threats to iconic species, as well as necessary changes in our way of life and economy. But it has, up until now, often been neglected that climate change costs can go way beyond that and undermine the system that support our healthcare and our very survival.

The Australian Medical Association had since 2004 warned for the health effects of climate change and called for it to become not only an environmental but also a public health priority. The Australian Government eventually heard their call as Climate Change Minister, Senator Penny Wong, announced on January 27, 2009 the launch of a new AU$ 10 million research project on climate change health effects, collaboratively led by the Australian National University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. (Source: SMH 27/01/09)

The National Adaptation Research Plan for Human Health and Climate Change, which sets out Australia’s research priorities for the next five years, highlights possible health effects of climate change. Some impacts will occur via direct-acting pathways, such as injuries or death caused by extreme climate events like floods, heat waves or bushfires. Yet many others are likely to occur through climatic influence on ecological, biological and social systems. This includes, for example, altered food production, respiratory and water born diseases, and the recrudescence of arboviruses transmitted by mosquitoes. Climate change could therefore alter the redistribution of diseases and see the emergence of new ones. Senator Wong agreed that:

“By 2020, for example, the number of heat-related deaths in our capital cities is projected to double to about 2300 a year. We are likely to see more food-safety related illness and dengue fever is likely to spread southwards.” (Source: Media Release, Department for the Environment)

Research will focus on physical and mental health issues linked to heat, extreme weather, insect-borne diseases and food safety.

It is the first time the National Health and Medical Research Council has listed climate change in its funding guidelines, illustrating a shift to a more global and interdisciplinary approach to climate change adaptation strategies in the country.

But identifying new health threats will not be enough, the Government will have to make sure that trained health professionals and adapted healthcare facilities will be available to face future acute health demands.