Climate change
The global climate is changing and the health effects of these changes depend on where you live and if you have access to the things you need.
Climate change is causing global weather patterns to vary. With changing wind and ocean currents come changes in the frequency, strength and length of extreme weather events. Because of changing weather patterns and extreme temperatures, there’s more risk of environmental and seasonal health concerns like drought, flooding, wildfires and storms – affecting air quality, clean water and food security, and insect-transmitted diseases.
In the B.C. Interior, we can generally expect warmer and wetter winters, with random extreme cold snaps, and hotter, drier summers. These changes affect our natural and human environments (air quality, clean water and food sources) and can negatively affect our health. These health effects encompass not only our physical and mental health, but our social health too.
Climate change-related events may be manageable separately but the growing, continuing occurrences place additional stress on community, families and individual health. For example, severe wildfire events occurring year after year do not allow communities time to recover. Adding poor air quality and extreme heat at the same time can lead to many mental, physical and social health challenges.