From Inuit Nunangat to the Marsh: How climate change and environmental racism affect population health

Authors

  • Christina Norma Torrealba Dalhousie University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15273/hpj.v1i2.10663

Abstract

It is widely accepted in the scientific community and beyond that climate change presents an immediate and severe threat to human health and well-being. However, the consequences of climate change are not experienced equally across all populations. Black and Indigenous communities are disproportionately exposed to harmful, hazardous, and often toxic activities and pollutants—a form of racial violence known as environmental racism. To understand how environmental racism, exacerbated by climate change, affects population health, I will explore two examples of environmental racism in Inuit Nunangat in the Arctic and in Truro, Nova Scotia. Finally, I will discuss social capital and power in the context of environmental racism—incorporating an eco-social perspective when addressing environmental racism—and the ways in which population health researchers can help narrow the health gap caused by environmental racism and climate change.

References

Basu, R. (2009). High ambient temperature and mortality: A review of epidemiologic studies from 2001 to 2008. Environmental Health, 8, Article 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-069x-8-40

#BlackLivesMatterUK [@ukblm]. (2021, August 9). The climate crisis is a racist crisis #ClimateEmergency [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/ukblm/status/1424730260684345352?lang=en

Bell, J. (2020, August 24). Nunavut housing crisis an example of systemic racism, MP says. Nunatsiaq News. https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/nunavut-housing-crisis-an-example-of-systemic-racism-mp-says/

Colomeda, L. A., & Wenzel, E. R. (2000). Medicine keepers: Issues in Indigenous health. Critical Public Health, 10(2), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/713658247

Corfu, N. (2016, February 16). Truro prepares for heavy rains and possible flooding. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/storm-flooding-truro-mayor-1.3450930

Ford, J. D. (2009). Vulnerability of Inuit food systems to food insecurity as a consequence of climate change: A case study from Igloolik, Nunavut. Regional Environmental Change, 9(2), 83–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-008-0060-x

Ford, J. D., Willox, A. C., Chatwood, S., Furgal, C., Harper, S., Mauro, I., & Pearce, T. (2014). Adapting to the effects of climate change on Inuit health. American Journal of Public Health, 104(S3), e9–e17. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2013.301724

Greenwood, M., de Leeuw, S., Lindsay, N. M., & Reading, C. (Eds.) (2015). Determinants of Indigenous peoples‘ health in Canada: Beyond the social (1st ed.). Canadian Scholars‘ Press.

Gundersen, C., & Ziliak, J. P. (2015). Food insecurity and health outcomes. Health Affairs, 34(11), 1830–1839. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0645

Harper, S. L., Edge, V. L., Cunsolo Willox, A., & Rigolet Inuit Community Government. (2012). ‘Changing climate, changing health, changing stories‘ profile: Using an EcoHealth approach to explore impacts of climate change on Inuit health. EcoHealth, 9(1), 89–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-012-0762-x

Jacobs, B. (2010, May 20). Environmental racism on Indigenous lands and territories. Canadian Political Science Association. https://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2010/Jacobs.pdf

Krieger, N. (2001). Theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: An ecosocial perspective. International Journal of Epidemiology, 30(4), 668–677. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/30.4.668

Liu, Q., Liu, X., Cirendunzhu., Woodward, A., Pengcuociren., Bai, L., Baimaciwang., Sang, S., Dazhen., Wan, F., Zhou, L., Guo, Y., Wu, H., Li, G., Lu, L., Wang, J., Dawa., Chu, C., & Xiraoruodeng. (2013). Mosquitoes established in Lhasa city, Tibet, China. Parasites & Vectors, 6, Article 224. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-6-224

McMichael, A. J., Woodruff, R. E., & Hales, S. (2006). Climate change and human health: Present and future risks. The Lancet, 367(9513), 859–869. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(06)68079-3

Millman, P. (2019). African Nova Scotian youth experience on the Island, the Hill, and the Marsh: A study of Truro, Nova Scotia in the 1950s and 1960s (Publication No. 13901920) [Master‘s thesis, University of Lethbridge]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Mitchell, D., Heaviside, C., Vardoulakis, S., Huntingford, C., Masato, G., Guillod, B. P., Frumhoff, P., Bowery, A., Wallom, D., & Allen, M. (2016). Attributing human mortality during extreme heat waves to anthropogenic climate change. Environmental Research Letters, 11(7), Article 074006. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074006

Morse, R. (2008). Environmental justice through the eye of Hurricane Katrina. Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Health Policy Institute.

Muntaner, C. (2004). Commentary: Social capital, social class, and the slow progress of psychosocial epidemiology. International Journal of Epidemiology, 33(4), 674–680. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyh200

Northridge, M. E., & Shepard, P. M. (1997). Comment: Environmental racism and public health. American Journal of Public Health, 87(5), 730–732. https://dx.doi.org/10.2105%2Fajph.87.5.730

Nunavut Climate Change Centre. (n.d.). Voices from the land—Quotes by community: Iqaluit. https://www.climatechangenunavut.ca/en/knowledge/voices-land

Oceans North. (n.d.). Inuit Nunangat. https://oceansnorth.org/en/where-we-work/inuit-nunangat/

Ohl, C. A., & Tapsell, S. (2000, November 11). Flooding and human health. The BMJ, 321, 1167–1168. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.321.7270.1167

Pace, N. (2015, March 5). Flooding problems won‘t recede in Atlantic Canada: Experts. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/1866192/flooding-problems-wont-recede-in-atlantic-canada-experts/

Patterson, M., Flinn, S., & Barker, K. (2018). Addressing tuberculosis among Inuit in Canada. Canada Communicable Disease Report, 44(3–4), 82–85. https://doi.org/10.14745/ccdr.v44i34a02

Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster.

Richmond, C. A. M., & Ross, N. A. (2009). The determinants of First Nation and Inuit health: A critical population health approach. Health & Place, 15(2), 403–411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2008.07.004

Sealey-Huggins, L. (2018). ‘The climate crisis is a racist crisis‘: Structural racism, inequality and climate change. In A. Johnson, R. Joseph-Salisbury, & B. Kamunge (Eds.), The fire now: Anti-racist scholarship in times of explicit racial violence (pp. 99–116). Zed Books.

Segal, M. (2014, November 27). Truro‘s Park Street floods again following rain. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/truro-s-park-street-floods-again-following-rain-1.2852673

Seneviratne, S. I., Nicholls, N., Easterling, D., Goodess, C. M., Kanae, S., Kossin, J., Luo, Y., Marengo, J., McInnes, K., Rahimi, M., Reichstein, M., Sorteberg, A., Vera, C., & Zhang, X. (2012). Changes in climate extremes and their impacts on the natural physical environment. In C. B. Field, V. Barros, T. F. Stocker, D. Qin, D. J. Dokken, K. L. Ebi, M. D. Mastrandrea, K. J. Mach, G.-K. Plattnew, S. K. Allen, M. Tignor, & P. M. Midgley (Eds.), Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation: Special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (pp. 109–230). Cambridge University Press. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/SREX-Chap3_FINAL-1.pdf

Smith, K. R., Woodward, A., Campbell-Lendrum, D., Chadee, D. D., Honda, Y., Liu, Q., Olwoch, J. M., Revich, B., and Sauerborn, R. (2014). Human health: Impacts, adaptation, and co-benefits. In C. B. Field, V. R. Barros, D. J. Dokken, K. J. Mach, M. D. Mastrandrea, T. E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K. L. Ebi, Y. O. Estrada, R. C. Genova, B. Girma, E. S. Kissel, A. N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P. R. Mastrandrea, & L. L. White (Eds.), Climate change 2014: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A: Global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (pp. 709–754). Cambridge University Press. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5-Chap11_FINAL.pdf

Solar, O., & Irwin, A. (2010). A conceptual framework for action on the social determinants of health (Discussion Paper Series on Social Determinants of Health, Paper 2). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/sdhconference/resources/ConceptualframeworkforactiononSDH_eng.pdf

Tagalik, S. (2009–2010). Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: The role of Indigenous knowledge in supporting wellness in Inuit communities in Nunavut. National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health. https://www.ccnsa-nccah.ca/docs/health/FS-InuitQaujimajatuqangitWellnessNunavut-Tagalik-EN.pdf

Tutton, M. (2012, September 10). Dikes burst in Truro as rain swamps N.S. rivers. CTV News. https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/dikes-burst-in-truro-as-rain-swamps-n-s-rivers-1.949820

United Nations Human Rights Council. (2020, September 4). Visit to Canada: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes (A/HRC/45/12/Add.1). https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/45/12/Add.1

Waldron, I. R. G. (2016, September 10). Experiences of environmental health inequities in African Nova Scotian communities. ENRICH Project. https://www.enrichproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Final-Environmental-Racism-Report.pdf

Waldron, I. R. G. (2018). There‘s something in the water: Environmental racism in Indigenous and Black communities. Fernwood Publishing.

Downloads

Published

2021-11-17

Issue

Section

Articles