While no one will escape the effects of climate change, its impacts “do not fall fairly” and require robust strategies to address health inequity, an ethicist told a group of University of Minnesota researchers and students during a recent webinar that was open to the public.
“We need to be able properly to map vulnerabilities to the health impacts of climate change globally in order to put together a meaningful response,” said Julian Sheather, Ph.D., who advises the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders.
Sheather added that justice requires more than just identifying people who are most affected. It includes “involvement throughout research agendas … application and policy engagement.”
In addition to those most affected by climate change getting a seat at the table, Sheather said the way to deal with its effects on our health is not just to focus on humans, but to expand our focus to the health of the ecosystems around us. This approach, known as the One Health approach, asks us to look at “our interdependence,” he said.
“Human health cannot be separated from the health of the ecosystems and the natural resources on which we fundamentally depend,” Sheather said. As an example, he pointed to vector-borne diseases, which are diseases transmitted to humans via other living organisms, such as Lyme disease transmitted by ticks. According to Sheather, we cannot respond to these diseases in humans without understanding how they are produced and spread in local ecosystems before being transmitted.
“Let’s shift our perspective away from seeing the natural world as an endless, teeming resource for us simply to use,” Sheather said.
If we don’t, he said, our outlook is bleak.
“We will crumble. Our health will crumble.”[cms_ad:x101]Here are two important ways health equity and climate change intersect in Minnesota:
Warming temperatures:
Rises in greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere causing climate change are linked to increased temperatures. While the record-breaking 50-degree days in the Twin Cities in January are top of mind, excessive heat in the summer months can cause heat-related illness, including heat stroke and heat exhaustion. The effects of rising heat may not be felt equally nationwide or in Minnesota.
Our Minnesota Climate, a state initiative on climate change, cites a 2020 study showing that historically redlined neighborhoods in the United States — neighborhoods where residents were denied property loans by banks based on their race — were, on average, 5 degrees hotter than other areas in the same city. In Minnesota, redlined districts were 11 degrees hotter than non-redlined districts, putting Black residents and other people of color residing in these districts at increased risk of heat-related illness.
Increased air pollution:
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, temperature and precipitation changes due to climate change will likely increase the amount of ground-level ozone in the air — a harmful gas created when pollution in the air chemically reacts to heat or sunlight. The agency also says more wildfires are negatively affecting air quality and affecting people’s health. While air quality in Minnesota complies with federal standards, the effects of existing air pollution are not felt equally. According to the 2022 Life and Breath Report from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Minnesota Department of Health, the highest estimated rates of deaths and disease related to air pollution in the Twin Cities were from areas with greater percentages of Black, Indigenous and other residents of color.
The corresponding report on Greater Minnesota — which focused on Duluth, Rochester and St. Cloud — also found that communities with higher numbers of Black, Indigenous and other residents of color, along with communities with higher numbers of low-income residents, uninsured residents or people with disabilities, had the highest estimated death and illness rates due to air pollution.
Deanna Pistono
Deanna Pistono is MinnPost’s Race & Health Equity fellow. Follow her on Twitter @deannapistono or email her at dpistono@minnpost.com.
