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A new report published by one of the world's most prestigious medical journals indicates that Canada's failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not only kills the planet, it is killing Canadians.
The report on the effects of climate change on health, published Wednesday in The Lancet, concludes that fighting climate change effectively would be the greatest thing governments can do to improve human health in this century.
Chronic exposure to air pollution resulting from activities generating greenhouse gases contributes to the deaths of approximately 7,142 Canadians per year and 2.1 million people around the world, the report said.
Heat waves, forest fires, floods and major storms are responsible for more deaths and long-term illnesses, but little data is available on their numbers.
The report's first recommendation is simply to track the number of heat-related illnesses and deaths in Canada, which is not done at all in most provinces.
Kevin Key / Slworking via Getty Images The 2018 wildfire season is the most destructive ever recorded in California, with a total of 7,579 fires ignited.
Last summer, public health officials in Quebec said that 90 people died during a heat wave. The south and east of Ontario have suffered the same heat, but Ontario does not track heat-related deaths in the same way. Nobody knew how many people had been affected in the province.
Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency physician from Yellowknife, who wrote the Canadian section of the report, said the world was about to cope with temperature rises that we could not adapt to, resulting in more deaths. and diseases.
The average temperature on the surface of the planet is already about 1 ° C warmer than it was in the pre-industrial era, and if we continue to emit greenhouse gases at current levels, the increase is will be between 2.6 and 4.8 ° C by the end of the century, she says.
"We are not sure if we can adapt to that so we can maintain the same civilizational stability and health care systems we are used to," said Howard.
"We are not just talking about maintaining the level of disease, we are talking about our ability to provide health care."
Fine particles of pollutants in the air cause premature death from heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, acute respiratory infections and chronic lung disease. More frequent heat waves contribute to heat stroke and more intense pollen seasons, which can aggravate allergies and asthma, as well as forest fires.
"We are not sure we can adapt to this in a way that allows us to maintain the same civilizational stability and health care systems we are used to" Dr. Courtney Howard, emergency physician in Yellowknife.
Warmer temperatures also help insects to grow, which means more insect-borne diseases. The incidence of Lyme disease, transmitted by ticks, increased by 50% in 2017 alone.
Howard said that a new emerging term among mental health professionals was "eco-anxiety," describing the mental stress caused by climate-related changes – or even just the threat that they might arise.
Public health officials will have to adapt their responses to dangers such as forest fires, because the increasing intensity and frequency of these fires means that many more communities have stale air much longer, said Howard.
Most health authorities advise people to stay indoors on smoke days, but when these periods last for several weeks, this is not a lasting solution.
Marc Bruxelle via Getty Images Floods are also on the rise.
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In San Francisco this month, smoke from forest fires has made it one of the most dangerous fires in the world. The doctors told people to stay inside and wear masks if they had to go outside.
Howard said work is underway to improve smoke forecasts, so people can know when they can expect to go outside, exercise and sun safely during warnings. of prolonged smoke.
She added that recent summers have alerted Canadians to climate change, with record forest fire seasons in British Columbia in 2017 and 2018, a drought on the Prairies, heat waves in central Canada, and flooding communities almost from one ocean to another. She said that some people think it's a new normal – but that's not it.
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"It will be worse in 10 years," she said.
Howard said that if we do not intensify our efforts, the change in the world would be enormous, including more wars and migrations.
"I am an emergency doctor and I work there because it is an emergency," she said.
The Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Public Health Association both agree with the Lancet's findings and recommendations.
"Health professionals are realizing the devastating impact of our changing climate on health," said Dr. Gigi Osler, President of the Canadian Medical Association, in a statement.
"From forest fires to new infectious diseases, to heat waves, we are already addressing the effects of climate change on health," she said.
"It's the public health imperative of our time."
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