Indigenous health and climate change

• Published in: American Journal of Public Health
• Main Author: Ford, James D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Public Health Association 2012
• Subjects: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES; VULNERABILITY; CLIMATE CHANGE; ARCTIC; AUSTRALIA; MENTAL STRESS; POVERTY; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10625/51211; http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2012.300752

Indigenous-focused content has largely been overlooked in reports on climate change such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This article captures place-based dimensions of climate change vulnerability as well as broader determining factors. The studies focus primarily on Australia and the Arctic, and indicate significant adaptive capacity in indigenous peoples, with active responses to climate-related health risks. However, non-climatic stresses including poverty, land dispossession, globalization, and associated sociocultural transitions challenge adaptive capacity. These are social determinants of health. The scope for climate change to affect health, therefore, is broader than altering incidence and prevalence of disease.