Sixteen years ago, on this day, January 13th, 2009,
Aborigines living in remote parts of Australia will feel the impact of climate warming more than other Australians, a report says. With temperatures in the tropical north and interior tipped to rise by three degrees Celsius by 2050, worsening already searing summer heat, the government needs to urgently improve Aboriginal health and housing, researchers wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia.
….”Elevated temperatures and increases in hot spells are expected to be a major problem for Indigenous health in remote areas, where cardiovascular and respiratory disease are more prevalent and there are many elderly people with inadequate facilities to cope with the increased heat stress,” they wrote.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-01-13/aborigines-to-feel-climate-shift-most-report/265222Donna Green, Ursula King and Joe Morrison
Green, et al. 2009.Disproportionate burdens: the multidimensional impacts of climate change on the health of Indigenous Australians Med J Aust ; 190 (1): 4-5. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02250.x
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 387ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had gained power in part by saying that he would take action on climate change. Already by this time, however, it was pretty clear that that “action” would be utterly inadequate to the scale of the challenge at best. Meanwhile, the Millennium drought was still making life hell.
What I think we can learn from this is that bodies such as the Medical Journal of Australia were wanting to raise the issue of the most vulnerable people getting it in the neck.
What happened next Rudd couldn’t get his piss-weak climate legislation through, and the next year was toppled by his deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard, and we finally got legislation in 2012 (repealed two years later)
The danger for vulnerable communities, poor, rural, isolated continues to climb, and there will be places that will have to be abandoned because of heat. And we Are A Stupid, Stupid species.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day: