Global Climate Change and Health

Global Climate Change and Health
Student’s Full Name
University
Course Number, Section, and Title
September 19, 2015
Global Climate Change and Health
Climate change has grown to be a global concern that has dominated debates in many forums around the world. While international institutions like the United Nations and individual countries try to find ways to alleviate the growing effects, health concerns have taken centre-stage. The purpose of this paper is to probe global health concerns that have been brought about by climate change and also look at promotion and health strategies that can be utilized by Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) nurses to mitigate adverse effects of these cases.
Climate change has been widely promoted by human activities. United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA (2014) says that the primary human activity that affects the amount and rate of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The World Health Organization (2014) says that ‘climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food, and secure shelter’. The resulting health concerns related to these are cardiovascular and respiratory diseases like asthma, communicable diseases, mental disorders mainly from displacement, diarrhea and water-borne diseases due to lack of fresh water, among others.
These effects of climatic change on health are also impacting on public and global health services. Natural disasters like tsunamis and floods have put a strain on the resources of a number of countries worldwide. This means that there are fewer resources to buy medicines and build hospitals. Also with the increasing number of climate change-related health issues, and thinning resources, the medical personnel globally are being overstretched. This therefore means that quality care may not be provided equally to all patients for some of the cases mentioned above. There are also rising cases of new unknown infections which pull away the focus of research institutions like Centre for Disease Control (CDC). As such, the scope of public health concerns and overstretched resources is global with climatic change affecting virtually every corner of the world. This is due to the sustained environmental degradation that is affecting soil and water conditions, and leading to unequal living conditions through the segregation of urban and rural areas CITATION Mel14 \l 1033 (Climate Change Impacts in the United States:The Third National Climate Assessment., 2014)
Nurses play a big role in public health intervention to improve the health of populations. To promote health and provide health protection, BSN nurses can utilize various strategies. In cases of natural disaster like hurricanes and tsunamis, nurses can set up sites where sick people are triaged. This is vital in isolating cases where nurses know which people need urgent medical attention, which ones have been affected mentally and so on. Nurses promote health through clinical services, consultations and follow-up treatments. They provide patients with education and protection of illnesses. Under climate change circumstances for example, nurs...