Australia on fire
2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 395; Issue: 10219 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30098-2
ISSN1474-547X
Autores Tópico(s)Disaster Response and Management
Resumo28 people dead and rising, tens of thousands forced from their homes, Indigenous communities displaced, up to 1 billion animals dead, and some of the world's most beautiful and unique natural landscapes burned. The sheer scale of Australia's bushfires is hard to comprehend. Immediate health needs for firefighters, other emergency workers, and displaced people include shelter, food, and water as well as psychological counselling and support for trauma, grief, and loss. Many of the survivors are in remote areas that have had historically poor access to mental health services, now further exacerbated. Access to essential medicines is under threat, particularly for isolated groups and rural communities. Primary health-care systems are under unprecedented strain without adequate disaster planning systems at local, state, or federal levels. Residents of Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra are repeatedly breathing the world's worst quality air, with thick clouds of smoke shrouding the cities, sometimes for days on end. And economic devastation to livelihoods and property could have an impact on the social determinants of health for years to come. The public health crisis is acute in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. Sandro Demaio, Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), told The Lancet, “Beyond the immediate physical danger from the fires themselves and the isolation of entire communities—cut off from power, communications and even road access—there's the hazards of prolonged smoke exposure, which is of particular concern for children, the elderly, and those with respiratory difficulties including asthma. These fires are affecting the air quality of millions of people, including as far as New Zealand and South America.” Alongside this, a planetary health crisis is unfolding, with effects that cannot yet be quantified. Dozens of habitats on which rare species depend have been destroyed and previously endangered animals are facing further threat of extinction. The Wollemi pines, whose discovery in 1994 and subsequently protected secret location, were a beacon of hope for Australia's biodiversity are now feared destroyed. Losses such as these also affect the very fabric and culture of Indigenous Australia—embedded in 65 000 years of deep attachment to the land. Repeated displacement and loss of bush and wildlife are causing irreversible cultural changes that could fracture communities and erode already fragile language systems that are dependent on communities for continuity of oral traditions. Indigenous cultural identity and health are inextricably entwined with the land and wildlife, and the health of Indigenous people is under threat as their country is decimated. The bushfires were expected, and fires of this size and spread have been feared by climate scientists for many years already, with links firmly established between rising global temperatures and conditions that enable bushfires. The Australian Medical Association declared climate change a health emergency in September, 2019, and fire officials’ warnings have gone unheeded for more than 4 months. Government politicisation and denial of climate science has hindered the disaster response and added to the frustration and anger. Short spells of cooler weather or rain might bring temporary respite, but it is still early in the bushfire season and worse may yet come. As the 2019 report of the Australian MJA–Lancet Countdown noted in its new indicator for wildfire exposure, “Climate change is causing fire seasons to start earlier and finish later, and anomalous meteorological conditions have been linked to a trend towards more extreme fire events.” How will Australia recover? There is a national sense of grief shared by individuals, families, and communities for the collective loss of life, country, and for the future. The instinctive urge to alleviate the overwhelming sadness and shock is being channelled into a positive community response, as artists, writers, and activists mobilise fundraising to support the voluntary fire services. Communities are also dependent on primary care providers, who play a deeply embedded role, and dependency on whom will continue long after the world's interest has moved on, necessitating additional mental health support, supplies, and staff to keep practices and evacuation centres running. Yet there remains a lack of sensible political discourse, with Australian politicians talking about resilience and adaptation, despite the very clear limitations, and still avoiding the underlying issue of the fossil fuel industry's stronghold there. Australia is one of the few Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries still building new coal mines, and the continuing damage that this does to Australia's human and planetary health is in plain and tragic sight. Bushfires expose weaknesses in Australia's health systemDoctors have been left unprepared and climate change has not been considered a health issue. Sophie Cousins reports. Full-Text PDF
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