As Australia swelters in record heat, a new report warns that Aborigines in the Australian outback will bear the brunt of climate change, with higher rates of disease and spiritual suffering as they see their ancestral lands ravaged.
The study, published in the Australian Medical Journal, argues that unless new preventative action is taken, climate change will lead to higher rates of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus, and an increase in communicable diseases such as bacterial diarrhoea, which are common in hot and dry conditions.
It also said that Aborigines’ close connection to their tribal land means that land degradation due to climate change will adversely affect their psychological wellbeing.
