Indigenous People Vulnerable to Climate Change
Scientists say extreme weather events have accompanied a rise in global temperatures. Droughts, heavy rains and floods have put indigenous people around the world at risk. They’re studying how extreme weather events can trigger more disease outbreaks.
“I would say that indigenous people are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts because of their close relationship with the local environment and ecosystems and also their dependence on those local ecosystems for their livelihood, as well as a lot of complex and interrelated social issues and inequities and inequalities,” said Sherilee Harper, who’s a Ph.D candidate in aboriginal people’s health at the University of Guelph near Toronto, Canada. She’s been studying the effects of climate change on the Batwa people in southwest Uganda.
“So for instance, after a period of heavy rainfall or flooding there’s often increased in bacteria and pathogens in the water due to runoff and things like that. That can increase a risk of exposure to waterborne disease. Now, climate change scenarios are predicting we’re going to see more of these periods of heavy rainfall more frequently, longer duration and more intense instances. So we’re expecting that’ll increase the prevalence and risk of exposure to waterborne disease,” she said.
One of those diseases is diarrhea, which health officials estimate kills about one million young children every year.
“The World Health Organization is predicting that most of the climate-related health burden is going to be due to diarrheal disease and malnutrition. And both of those are water issues. So that’s why we started studying the topic,” said Harper.
via voanews image Chris Evers: Batwa Pygmy People
