The journal’s most recent annual survey The Lancet on Human Health and Climate Change highlights that more Canadians than ever face serious health risks from heat waves and forest fires.
Annual study Lancet Countdown examines 44 markers of the impacts of climate change on human health globally.
Lead author Marina Romanello, a biochemist at the Institute for Global Health in London, recalls that many people around the world have suffered from intense heat waves, deadly floods and wildfires this year. For her, these are grim warnings that should prompt us to act without delay.
In Canada, the authors note, the “heat dome” that blanketed British Columbia and parts of the Prairies in June and July “would have been nearly impossible without man-made climate change.”
This heat wave lasted several weeks and the small town of Lytton, British Columbia, was destroyed by fire, while the day before, it had recorded a temperature of 49.6 ° C, a record in Canada.
The study of Lancet says heat waves have been responsible for at least 570 deaths in Canada and hundreds more in the United States.
These seniors who are dying of the heat
Across Canada, the risk of death among seniors from extreme heat has increased by more than 50% over the past four years, compared to the years 2000 to 2004, the report says.
Exposure to forest fires has increased by almost 20% over this period, but not uniformly: Indigenous communities are at much higher risk. Indigenous people living on-reserve are 33 times more likely to be forced to evacuate due to a forest fire than people living off-reserve, according to the report of the Lancet.
The authors also point out that in 2020, the heat caused the loss of more than 22 million working hours in Canada, affecting both human health and productivity.
Globally, climate change has left nearly 20% of the earth’s land surface in extreme drought in 2020; between 1950 and 1999, this value had never exceeded 13%. The resulting impact on crops resulted in a 2-6% decrease in the production of rice, soybeans, wheat and maize.
Powerful lobbying
Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency physician in Yellowknife and former president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, helped write the “Report Card for Canada”, drawn from the global findings of the Lancet Countdown.
She explains that this year, there has been more emphasis on the need to adapt to the fact that climate change is not just real – it is already causing damage to human health. “So how are we going to get out of these heat waves and wildfire episodes in as healthy a way as possible?”
The Report to Canada sets out several policy demands, including increasing and preserving green spaces in urban centers. It is also recommended to establish and adequately fund a new national body that would work “between silos” to develop a comprehensive national climate adaptation strategy, “including risk assessments and adaptation plans”.
The authors also severely criticize the federal government for allowing itself to be strongly influenced by lobbying from the oil and gas industry. They estimate that in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fossil fuel industries and their associations met with federal government officials 1,224 times, “or more than 4.5 times per working day.”
Comparatively, environmental groups met with federal officials 303 times – four times less often – according to the minutes. “The energy transition policy must be developed without this excessive pressure from industry,” the authors conclude.
Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, president of the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment, believes that “we must not only adapt quickly and effectively, but urgently begin to abandon fossil fuels.”