Responding to health impacts of climate change in the Australian desert

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Responding to health impacts of climate change in
the Australian desert

• David Campbell, Mark Stafford Smith, Jocelyn
  Davies, Pim Kuipers, John Wakerman Murray
  McGregor
• 2008 Desert Knowledge Symposium and Business
  Showcase
• Alice Springs
• Wednesday 5th November 2008

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Strategically, there are two parts in addressing
this issue

• Understanding
• Existing conditions
• Expected impact of climate change
• Responding
• Response
• Responding to changed conditions
• Importance of avoiding breakdown of systems
• Dealing with risk and uncertainty

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Understanding

• Existing conditions
• Demography
• Environment
• Poor health of Aboriginal people poor
  facilities
• general impact of settlement and disconnection of
  original land managers
• Expected impact of climate change
• Increased heat decreased effective rainfall
• Environment and increased variability
• Higher costs in response and mitigation

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Responding to climate change

• Response
• Responding to changed conditions
• Importance of avoiding breakdown of systems
• Dealing with risk and uncertainty
• Increased variability and extremes

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Response

• Address risk and uncertainty
• Identify regions and the conditions and likely
  impact on those regions
• Develop responses
• Cooperation
• local state and territory, national governments,
  industry NGOs, and individuals and integration
  of health and other services
• Meet increased health demands
• including complementary inputs such as housing,
  waste water management, employment opportunities

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This presentation is based in part on
Campbell, D. Stafford Smith, Davies, J. Kuipers,
P. Wakerman, J. and McGregor, M. 2008,
Responding to the health impacts of climate
change in the Australian desert Rural and Remote
Health Journal www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewn
ew.asp?ArticleID1008

• The research reported here was jointly supported
  by funding from the Australian Government
  Cooperative Research Centre Program through the
  Desert Knowledge CRC and the Centre for Remote
  Health, funded by the Department of Health and
  Ageing University Department of Rural Health
  program. The views expressed herein do not
  necessarily represent the views of Desert
  Knowledge CRC, the Centre for Remote Health or
  its participants.