News
Authors for the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) meet in Kazan, Russia (March 2019).
IHACC Team member Sherilee Harper is a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC). Authors are meeting in Kazan, Russia, from March 4-8, 2019 to further develop this report. See the IPCC website for more details!
King N., Bishop-Williams K., Beauchamp S., Ford J., Berrang Ford L., Cunsolo A., IHACC Research Team, Harper S. (2019) How do Canadian media report climate change impacts on health? A newspaper review. Climactic Change. doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2311-2
Research on climate change media coverage is growing. Few studies, however, have investigated how the media portrays climate change impacts on human health. This review, therefore, presents a quantitative spatiotemporal analysis of Canadian newspaper coverage of climate change impacts on health between 2005 and 2015. Using the ProQuest® and Eureka®databases, a multiphase systematic review strategy was employed to identify relevant English and French articles from two national and six regional high-circulation newspapers. Quantitative and qualitative data were extracted from 145 articles and analyzed to characterize the range, extent, and nature of climate-health newspaper coverage in Canada and to compare these characteristics by region and over time. Coverage varied by region, with the highest proportion of climate-health coverage in Northern Territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut). Over time, there was a decreasing publication frequency trend. Almost all articles described negative climate change impacts on health, with a predominant focus on infectious and chronic noninfectious diseases; however, less than half of the articles discussed climate change solutions. These trends suggest that current media coverage might not drive widespread public support for policies and actions needed to protect against projected climate-health risks. Consequently, as climate change continues to challenge human health, increasing media emphasis on climate change impacts on human health, as well as a shift toward enabling and empowering climate change communication, in which viable mitigation and adaptation options are emphasized, could help to spur action to reduce climate change health risks.
IHACC team members Lea Berrang Ford, Sherilee Harper, and Mark New are in Durban, South Africa for the first lead author meeting of the IPCC Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
For more information on the meeting and AR6, see the IPCC website here.
Written by Kate Bishop-Williams and Bianca van Bavel
As we look forward to the new year that lies ahead, we reflect back on some of the exciting work and events that took place in 2018. One such event included a series of results sharing events with collaborators and community members in Buhoma, Uganda, facilitated by IHACC team members Didas Namanya (IHACC Principal Investigator, Uganda Ministry of Health), Kate Bishop-Williams (PhD Student, University of Guelph), Bianca van Bavel (PhD Student, Leeds University), and Grace Asaasira (Research Assistant, Makerere University) in July 2018.
Group photo of workshop participants and facilitators, Uganda Nursing School Bwindi, Buhoma.
The first research meeting occurred at the Bwindi Community Hospital to discuss, interpret, and contextualize the results of PhD student Kate Bishop William’s research about the impacts of weather patterns on hospital admissions and acute respiratory infections. In total, 68 staff members ranging from administration to nurses and doctors attended the meeting. Discussions primarily focused on the interpretation of key findings.
Student translators from the Uganda Nursing School Bwindi managing the workshop registration table.
A results dissemination workshop also took place at the Uganda Nursing School Bwindi, in Buhoma, Uganda. In total, 68 participants attended the workshop, with representatives from local Indigenous settlements, local authorities, district and sub-county officials, hospital and nursing school staff, as well as NGOs and village health teams. This was a unique opportunity for a diverse group of people with expertise in different fields to interact and engage directly with the research results and with each other.
Workshop presentations covered preliminary results and key findings from 12 different IHACC-related projects. Topics ranged from Indigenous and non-Indigenous areas of maternal health; impacts of weather and seasonal variability on health and hospital admissions, nutrition, food security, and crops; prevention of vector, water, and food borne diseases; as well as community-based surveillance systems. Three participatory sessions enabled participants to break into smaller groups to discuss specific questions related to the interpretation of results and more. Ideas and perspectives were recorded via different participatory strategies and shared with the larger group afterwards.
Groups discuss and share during participatory breakout sessions.
In addition to the workshop being a great opportunity to discuss research results, it also presented opportunities for capacity building in Buhoma. For instance, Didas Namanya and Grace Asaasira conducted a training session in public speaking and translation with four students from the Uganda Nursing School Bwindi who later practiced these skills during the workshop.
The full day event provided a space to share preliminary results, discuss findings, listen to feedback, and consult about the future of climate-health monitoring and research activities in Kanungu District. Some participants voiced the desire to have additional targeted meetings to develop these ideas and discussions in greater depth, and the IHACC Research Team looks forward to continuing this dialogue and refining the ways in which we share results, integrate feedback, and inform future research.
A participant asks a question during one of the workshop presentations.
Best wishes to all for a happy new year!
