In light of behavioral changes expressed by the population when they see large counts of infections and deaths from things like the ongoing pandemic, there is a new push to have “Climate Change” listed and logged as a cause of death on death certificates. A study published in May in the Lancet : Planetary Health, says, “Death certification needs to be modernized, indirect causes should be reported, with all death certification prompting for external factors contributing to death, and these death data must be coupled with large-scale environmental datasets so that impact assessments can be done.”
The study, available to the public, is available online here. Inside the report titled, “Heat-related mortality: an urgent need to recognize and record”, study authors suggest that attention can be paid on a threat much greater than coronavirus, which they say is global climate change. “We can make a diagnosis of disease like coronavirus, but we are less literate in environmental determinants like hot weather or bushfire smoke…Climate change is the single greatest health threat that we face globally even after we recover from coronavirus,” Dr. Hunter, one of the study authors wrote. Hunter joins Thomas Longden, Simon Quilty, Philip Haywood, and Russell Gruen as the study authors.
“Given the unpredictable nature and global scale of climatic and other environmental events, such as the Australian heatwaves and bushfires of 2019–20, it is imperative that systems designed to monitor national mortality accurately reflect the impact of large-scale environmental events,” the authors wrote.
“Climate change is a concern to many people. But if the effect of extreme temperatures is not recorded, its full impact can never be understood. Death certification needs to be modernized, indirect causes should be reported, with all death certification prompting for external factors contributing to death, and these death data must be coupled with large-scale environmental datasets so that impact assessments can be done.”
