Responding to health impacts of climate change in the

Australian desert

David Campbell, Mark Stafford Smith, Jocelyn Davies, Pim Kuipers, John Wakerman &

Murray McGregor

2008 Desert Knowledge Symposium and Business Showcase

Alice Springs Wednesday 5th November 2008

Strategically, there are two parts in addressing this issue

Understanding • Existing conditions • Expected impact of climate change

Responding• Response

– Responding to changed conditions– Importance of avoiding breakdown of systems– Dealing with risk and uncertainty

Understanding

• Existing conditions – Demography– Environment– Poor health of Aboriginal people & poor facilities– general impact of settlement and disconnection of

original land managers

• Expected impact of climate change– Increased heat decreased effective rainfall– Environment and increased variability– Higher costs in response and mitigation

Responding to climate change

• Response– Responding to changed conditions– Importance of avoiding breakdown of systems– Dealing with risk and uncertainty– Increased variability and extremes

Response

• Address risk and uncertainty – Identify regions and the conditions and likely impact

on those regions– Develop responses

• Cooperation – local state and territory, national governments,

industry NGO’s, and individuals and integration of health and other services

• Meet increased health demands – including complementary inputs such as housing,

waste & water management, employment opportunities

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The research reported here was jointly supported by funding from the Australian Government Cooperative Research Centre Program through the Desert Knowledge CRC and the Centre for Remote Health, funded by the Department of Health and Ageing University Department of Rural Health program. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of Desert Knowledge CRC, the Centre for Remote Health or its participants.

This presentation is based in part on: Campbell, D. Stafford Smith, Davies, J. Kuipers, P. Wakerman, J. and McGregor, M. 2008, ‘Responding to the health impacts of climate change in the Australian desert’ Rural and Remote Health Journal

‘www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewnew.asp?ArticleID=1008’