One Health – a strategy for resilience in a changing arctic (original) (raw)
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Polar Record
Climate warming is occurring most rapidly in the Arctic, which is both a sentinel and a driver of further global change. Ecosystems and human societies are already affected by warming. Permafrost thaws and species are on the move, bringing pathogens and vectors to virgin areas. During a five-year project, the CLINF – a Nordic Center of Excellence, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, has worked with the One Health concept, integrating environmental data with human and animal disease data in predictive models and creating maps of dynamic processes affecting the spread of infectious diseases. It is shown that tularemia outbreaks can be predicted even at a regional level with a manageable level of uncertainty. To decrease uncertainty, rapid development of new and harmonised technologies and databases is needed from currently highly heterogeneous data sources. A major source of uncertainty for the future of contaminants and infectious diseases in the Arctic, however, is associated...
Climate Change–Related Ecohealth Considerations for Impact Assessments in the Canadian Arctic
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development, 2021
Climate change is affecting the Arctic faster and more severely than other parts of the world. Arctic temperatures are rising at over twice the global rate, and it is predicted that the Arctic Ocean could be largely free of summer ice by the late 2030s. 1 Scientists warn that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are now impacting the Arctic's climate, hydrological, and ecological systems to such an extent that the region is actually "shifting to a new state"-"the Arctic as we know it is being replaced by a warmer, wetter, and more variable environment" 2 with "profound implications for people, resources, and ecosystems worldwide." 3 Climate change is projected to have a disproportionate impact on the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples around the world, due in part to "their greater dependence on local resources, habitation in regions of the world where the environment is changing rapidly, and socioeconomic disadvantage." 4 This observation is true for the Inuit, who have been among the first in Canada to feel the effects of climate change on their environment, and to report changes in their social, cultural, spiritual, and economic systems. 5 At the same time, melting sea ice and a warming Arctic are increasing the viability of resource exploration and extraction, and opening
Public health in the Canadian Arctic: contributions from International Polar Year research
2012
The contributions of several IPY health projects are highlighted in the context of population health indicators for Inuit Nunangat. Food and housing are two critical social determinants of health contributing to health issues on many levels. The nutritional deficit associated with food insecurity and the transition away from traditional and towards market foods represents a dual risk with profound consequences. Knowledge of the physiological benefits associated with traditional food consumption is increasing, including for mental health and chronic disease. Ensuring the safety of traditional foods in terms of zoonotic diseases is thus highly valuable and efforts to institute adequate monitoring and address Climatic Change
2021
Climate change represents a global challenge that impacts the environment, traditional lifestyle and health of the Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia and threatens their food security. Reindeer are an important food source for this population since reindeer herding products are used as traditional nutrition and effective preventive means and remedies for adapting to the cold and geomagnetic activity in the High North. Longer off-season periods, high summer and winter temperatures, melting ice, and forest and tundra fires have a significant impact on the trampling and degradation of reindeer pastures. These effects may lead to massive reindeer losses and changes in the traditional diet of the Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic, which result in increases in the prevalence of respiratory diseases, overweight and hypertension. This study applied a multidisciplinary approach based on ecological and medical research methods with the inclusion of socioeconomic analysis....
Arctic Biodiversity and Inuit Health
2010
, MDT Communications OAAPH [now known as the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO)] receives funding from Health Canada to assist it to undertake knowledge-based activities including, education, research and dissemination of information to promote health issues affecting Aboriginal persons. However, the contents and conclusions of this report are solely that of the authors and not attributable in We would like to thank the National Inuit Climate Change Committee for providing their comments on an earlier draft version of this paper and for their encouragement to contribute to this topic. Our thanks also go to Erin Fletcher for initial research and drafting of the observation tables and to Denise Rideout for editing and production. We thank Tracy O'Hearn and Dr. Scot Nickels for agreeing to act as external reviewers and for their thorough and timely comments during a very busy time of year. Thank you to James Kuptana for providing valuable comments on the draft. We also are appreciative of the work of the authors of Unikkaaqatigiit-Putting the Human Face on Climate Change. Scot Nickels, Christopher Furgal, Mark Buell, Heather Moquin, and the regional organizations and community residents provided the content for that document. Our appreciation is also extended to the numerous Inuit elders and other community members who have shared their knowledge, wisdom, and observations of the Arctic environment.
Adapting to the effects of climate change on Inuit health
American journal of public health, 2014
Climate change will have far-reaching implications for Inuit health. Focusing on adaptation offers a proactive approach for managing climate-related health risks-one that views Inuit populations as active agents in planning and responding at household, community, and regional levels. Adaptation can direct attention to the root causes of climate vulnerability and emphasize the importance of traditional knowledge regarding environmental change and adaptive strategies. An evidence base on adaptation options and processes for Inuit regions is currently lacking, however, thus constraining climate policy development. In this article, we tackled this deficit, drawing upon our understanding of the determinants of health vulnerability to climate change in Canada to propose key considerations for adaptation decision-making in an Inuit context.
One health in the circumpolar North
International Journal of Circumpolar Health
The North faces significant health disparities, especially among its many Indigenous peoples. In this article we discuss historical, environmental, and cultural variables that contribute to these disparities and propose a One Health approach to address them in a holistic and culturally appropriate manner. The One Health paradigm recognizes the interdependence among the health and well-being of people, animals and the environment. As such, the framework aligns well with many Indigenous world views. This proactive, interdisciplinary, constructivist, and collaborative approach promise earlier detection of risks and threats, as well as more effective responses, in part by engaging community level stakeholders in all stages of the process. In the far North, humans, especially Indigenous peoples, continue to live closely connected to their environment, in settings that exert significant impacts on health. In recent decades, rapid warming and elevated contaminant levels have heightened environmental risks and increased uncertainty, both of which threaten individual and community health and well-being. Under these circumstances especially, One Health's comprehensive approach may provide mitigating and adaptive strategies to enhance resilience. While many of the examples used in this manuscript focus on Alaska and Canada, the authors believe similar conditions exist among the indigenous and rural residents across the entire Circumpolar North.
Climate change and infectious diseases in the Arctic: establishment of a circumpolar working group
International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 2014
The Arctic, even more so than other parts of the world, has warmed substantially over the past few decades. Temperature and humidity influence the rate of development, survival and reproduction of pathogens and thus the incidence and prevalence of many infectious diseases. Higher temperatures may also allow infected host species to survive winters in larger numbers, increase the population size and expand their habitat range. The impact of these changes on human disease in the Arctic has not been fully evaluated. There is concern that climate change may shift the geographic and temporal distribution of a range of infectious diseases. Many infectious diseases are climate sensitive, where their emergence in a region is dependent on climate-related ecological changes. Most are zoonotic diseases, and can be spread between humans and animals by arthropod vectors, water, soil, wild or domestic animals. Potentially climate-sensitive zoonotic pathogens of circumpolar concern include Brucella spp.