Climate Change and Health in Canada

Ford, Lea Berrang

Despite the magnitude and scope of climate change, the recent global financial crisis has overshadowed concern for, and prioritization of, climate change science, policy, and action. While the implications of economic crisis at the international and national levels are undoubtedly of legitimate priority and concern, placing climate issues on the back-burner is misguided for two reasons. First, while the financial crisis may be acute and possibly prolonged in the short term -years, but not decades -the climate change crisis will last well into the next century and beyond. Investments in health system capacity and surveillance need to be implemented in advance of emerging impacts to avoid and/or mitigate morbidity and mortality. Additionally, observed climate impacts will begin to rapidly accelerate over the next decade. In the absence of genuine and dramatic intervention, climate change impacts have the potential to be severe and acute on a scale greatly exceeding the current financial crisis (3, 4, 6, 7) . The lack of action on climate change -including both mitigation of emissions and adaptation to current and future impacts -is generally rationalized based on the costs of interventions. The costs of a no-action approach, however, will be significant. The Stern Review, an independent assessment commissioned in the United Kingdom, estimated that a 5-6 °C warming over the next century could result in losses of up to 20% of global GDP (101); the report estimates the cost of mitigating climate emissions and severe impacts at approximately 1% of global GDP. The health sector, which makes up 10% of Canada's Gross National Product (GNP) can make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Canada (102, 103) .