Climate change has significant repercussions on the health of Canadians and more particularly on the most vulnerable communities, according to a Health Canada report published on Wednesday.
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Entitled “The Health of Canadians in a Changing Climate: Advancing Our Knowledge for Action,” the report aims to guide the development of policies to protect people from these effects.
“The report’s new findings on impacts on Indigenous health, health equity and mental health, among others, will help us ensure that our adaptation strategies are effective and equitable,” said by press release Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health.
Seniors, children, racialized populations, members of Aboriginal communities, but also people with low incomes or with chronic health problems are thus more affected by the repercussions of climate change.
And this climate situation could also have a direct impact on the mental health of Canadians. “It is clear that concerns about climate change have increased stress levels and affected the mental health of members of the Canadian public,” said Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health Carolyn Bennett. .
In addition to increasing the risk of infectious diseases, such as Lyme disease, climate change could also disrupt service and care delivery during extreme weather and natural disasters.
“This report shows very clearly that climate change has increasingly high costs on our health, our environment and our economy,” said Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Indigenous communities on the front line
First Nations members are not particularly spared by the perceived climate changes in the country, which affect the availability and quality of fresh water, but also traditional foods.
Conditions that affect the mental health and spiritual well-being of these communities, while denigrating their knowledge and ways of life, according to the Health Canada report.
“These peoples have a strong spiritual connection to the land, and their ancestral knowledge and contribution are essential to the development of innovative climate change adaptation measures that will protect indigenous communities from climate hazards,” explained the Minister of Indigenous Services, Patty Hajdu.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is thus seen as one of the keys to countering these harmful effects on the health of Canadians and the country’s economy. Remember that Canada aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
This report comes after a year of turbulent weather in Canada, particularly for the western part of the country which was affected by major forest fires and floods in the space of a few months.
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Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com