National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University Department of Resource Management and Geography, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria 3010, Australia, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Global Health. 2012 May 27;8:10. doi: 10.1186/1744-8603-8-10.
Human-induced climate change will affect the lives of most populations in the next decade and beyond. It will have greatest, and generally earliest, impact on the poorest and most disadvantaged populations on the planet. Changes in climatic conditions and increases in weather variability affect human wellbeing, safety, health and survival in many ways. Some impacts are direct-acting and immediate, such as impaired food yields and storm surges. Other health effects are less immediate and typically occur via more complex causal pathways that involve a range of underlying social conditions and sectors such as water and sanitation, agriculture and urban planning. Climate change adaptation is receiving much attention given the inevitability of climate change and its effects, particularly in developing contexts, where the effects of climate change will be experienced most strongly and the response mechanisms are weakest. Financial support towards adaptation activities from various actors including the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations is increasing substantially. With this new global impetus and funding for adaptation action come challenges such as the importance of developing adaptation activities on a sound understanding of baseline community needs and vulnerabilities, and how these may alter with changes in climate. The global health community is paying heed to the strengthening focus on adaptation, albeit in a slow and unstructured manner. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of adaptation and its relevance to global health, and highlight the opportunities to improve health and reduce health inequities via the new and additional funding that is available for climate change adaptation activities.
人为引起的气候变化将在未来十年及以后影响大多数人口的生活。它将对地球上最贫穷和最弱势的人群产生最大、通常也是最早的影响。气候条件的变化和天气多变性的增加以多种方式影响人类的福祉、安全、健康和生存。一些影响是直接作用和即时的，例如粮食产量下降和风暴潮。其他健康影响则不那么直接，通常通过更复杂的因果途径发生，这些途径涉及一系列潜在的社会条件和部门，如水和卫生、农业和城市规划。鉴于气候变化及其影响的必然性，特别是在发展中国家，气候变化的影响将最为强烈，应对机制最为薄弱，适应气候变化的工作受到了广泛关注。包括世界银行、欧盟和联合国在内的各种行为体对适应活动的财政支持正在大幅增加。随着适应行动的新的全球动力和资金的出现，出现了一些挑战，例如在充分了解基线社区需求和脆弱性的基础上开展适应活动的重要性，以及这些需求和脆弱性如何随着气候变化而改变。全球卫生界正在关注对适应工作的重视，尽管这种关注是缓慢和无组织的。本文的目的是概述适应及其与全球健康的关系，并强调通过新的和额外的适应气候变化活动资金，改善健康和减少健康不平等的机会。
