Alberta Acts
 
 

The Environment and Health Connection

Interview with Alberta Acts Advisory Board Member Dr. Colin Soskolne

"One of the single most important determinants of health is what we do to the environment," says Dr. Colin Soskolne, a professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta.

"And if we train future leaders to conserve, defend and work to do everything in their power to not interfere with nature and natural systems, then we've got a much better change of having healthier air, water and soil, and issues of poverty and other questions locally, regionally and globally will be less impacting on health."

"From drought to flood to more frequent and severe extreme weather phenomena, climate change has profound implications for farming, and the health and welfare of farmers."

Soskolne and and his colleagues take a 10,000 metre view of public health concerns, studying the relationships between human health and the dynamics of global ecological change. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in populations and its application to the control of health problems. Overall, the main purpose is to prevent harm to communities on a large scale.

"From drought to flood to more frequent and severe extreme weather phenomena, climate change has profound implications for farming, and the health and welfare of farmers," Soskolne explains in an interview from his office at the University of Alberta.

Alberta's prairie environment is already quite vulnerable to drought, but population pressures, expanding agricultural and industrial development — as well as increases in the frequency of drought expected due to climate change — may have profound impacts on the health and well-being of residents.

"We saw floods a few years ago in southern Alberta. That really caused quite a bit of havoc through soil erosion and loss of topsoil," he said. "So we know that had implications for the economic wellbeing of farmers. And we know that when economic hardship sets in, this can result in us seeing increases in suicide rates. We would like, from a preparedness point of view, to have mechanisms in place to offer counselling and safety nets for people who might be so affected" (Read more about the social determinants of health, courtesy of Health Canada).

There are many serious health implications resulting from climate change that show the urgency of making societal change.  The most vulnerable groups in society are the ones whose health is likely to be the most severely affected, including: children, seniors, people who are chronically ill, low income and homeless people, disabled people, people living off the land and Northern residents. Health Canada's Understanding the Health Effects of Climate Change provides more detail on what climate change might mean for Canadians.

Taking action on the ground

The public health and sustainability connection is an obvious one for Soskolne. In addition to contributing to leading international research in the domain of eco-epidemiology, the other side of Soskolne's work is creating new ways to educate students and inspire change.

If the state of the environment is the single most important determinant of health, then actively engaging citizenship on environmental issues is imperative in improving our health and wellbeing.

"I work with community groups to inspire them to embrace the Earth Charter as a set of values and principles that virtually upon reading it makes one feel better and happier. If we could subscribe to it and get our institutions to adopt and subscribe to these principles, that we would at once move from a course of decline to one of trying to turn to a sustainable path."

The Earth Charter is available in over 35 languages. Several countries around the world have actually looked at entrenching into bills of rights of protected environments, no pollution and the rights of future generations.

Soskolne was recently appointed to the role of Academic Coordinator within the University of Alberta's new Office of Sustainability.

"Part of the big challenge is to inject the values, notions and ethics of sustainability into the teaching at every level of the university, in all academic units. We want to try to develop modules so that most students should emerge from this university with some understanding of what is meant by sustainability within the academic disciplines that they are training in," Soskolne says.

"Perhaps more importantly [than academics], we are doing this so that the students can be engaged citizens and know the right questions to ask of leaders, and when it comes to voting."

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