Health and Mental Wellness Impacts

Climate change is a prominent topic of concern in the North, and the impacts on health are not yet fully understood. In Module 3, we discussed some physical health. impacts, but there are also Indirect impacts on Nunavummiut to consider.

In a recent report published by the Lancet Commission on Climate Change, climate change was found to endanger health through:

 

• changing patterns of disease and mortality
• extreme weather events
• food insecurity
• water scarcity
• heat waves, and 
• threats to our built infrastructure which includes our houses, businesses and community buildings.

 

While the health effects of climate change are global in scope, they bear particular relevance in the North, where communities hold a close relationship with the land.