Research shows that changes in weather patterns were affecting the
behaviour of mosquitoes. Thus mosquitoes have moved to new areas,
introducing infection to previously unaffected people and certain
animals. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGAH | NMG
Half a century ago concerns about climate change, environment
vulnerability, population density and the sustainability of earth
systems reached a broad audience. This was clear from books like Silent Spring, published in 1962, and The Limits to Growth, published 10 years later.
These
works influenced environmental activism at the time. They also
publicised the growing scientific evidence that climate change was
happening and was negatively affecting the earth.
But one piece of the puzzle remained missing: The impact of climate change on people, and specifically, on public health.
This
changed at the beginning of this century with growing advocacy and
gatherings such as the Conference of Parties and the publication of new
research. Scientists began writing about the earth moving into a new era
called the Anthropocene.
This is an era in which
ecosystems are increasingly affected by human behaviour, and in which
people are directly affected by the changes brought about by their
actions.
The Anthropocene provided the impetus for
renewed attention to health and the sustainability of all species. This
new understanding led to new research across disciplines, to new
interdisciplinary journals, and to policy documents on the impact of
climate change on health.
No more disciplinary silos
Major
new insights began to emerge. These included the fact that changes in
weather patterns were affecting the behaviour of mosquitoes. This in
turn was affecting our ability to control disease.
A
raft of work also started to emerge on the effects of changing weather
patterns, heat waves, and access to clean water on people’s health.
The
next step along this journey was that academics came to realise that
they can’t work in disciplinary silos. For example, health scientists
realised that they needed anthropologists, sociologists and economists
for a full understanding of the impact of climate change. The circle of
knowledge has, as a result, begun to expand.
Parallel
to these efforts, artists and advocacy groups have worked to keep
climate change on international and national policy agendas. For
example, artists have taken inspiration and drawn from scientific
research in engineering, chemistry, biology, and the earth sciences to
make their art.
In a first of its kind on the African
continent, these efforts are reflected at a 10-day public and academic
programme at the University of the Witwatersrand. The programme enmeshes
art and science to provoke new thinking about water and how its
politicisation affects public health.
Insights from different disciplines
Extreme
weather events, shifts in temperature variation and precipitation, and
higher mean temperatures have dramatically affected human health and
wellbeing.
From a health perspective, incremental
environmental changes over time have undone decades of investment in the
control of infectious diseases.
Many of these are
waterborne and water-washed diseases, such as dysentery and scabies.
They are result of poor personal hygiene because of inadequate water
availability. These diseases, common throughout Africa, are often
described as neglected diseases of poverty.
Scientists have started to explore the various affects in different settings in relation to different diseases.
For
example, changes in temperature and rainfall have, in turn, changed the
behaviour of vectors such as mosquitoes, flies and snails, with other
factors complicating the spread of disease.
This means
the settings that create the conditions for debilitating and
potentially fatal diseases such as malaria, zika, and dengue have
shifted. Thus mosquitoes have moved to new areas, introducing infection
to previously unaffected people and certain animals.
Anthropologists
have used a different lens to understand the impact. Research shows
that inequality influences people’s exposure to vector-borne diseases
and other environmentally sensitive infections. Gender, class and age
have also emerged as points of vulnerability for disease and poor health
in the context of climate change.
Climate change has,
most notably, begun to affect weather patterns. Changes in precipitation
and quantity, floods and droughts, and water insecurity are
increasingly common as the planet warms.
Scientists
have begun to track how this affects food production and other farming
activities. This in turn affects people’s livelihoods and food security.
These changes are increasingly being followed not
just by climate scientists, but also by academics from disciplines such
as economics and politics.
This follows the realisation
that the challenges of ageing infrastructure and water governance
complicate finding solutions to the challenges posed by global warming.
Creative interventions
Scientists
in the spheres of social, biological, and physical sciences as well as
the humanities and arts – need to continue to work on ways to interrupt
disease transmission in the context of global warming.
They
need to identify appropriate interventions where climate change affects
health – and to come up with creative solutions that cut across narrow
paths of thinking. Artists and civil society have a key role to play by
creating narrative, visual and acoustic forms to support advocacy on
issues of climate change, pollution, the ecology and environmental
justice.
Lenore Manderson is distinguished professor, Public Health and Medical Anthropology, at the University of the Witwatersrand.
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