Heat and climate change implications for health

Socio-cultural reflections on heat in Australia with implications for health and climate change adaptation is a paper from Jane Dixon and others at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health.  The authors explored ways in which vulnerable sub-populations adapt their personal behaviour to cope with heat.
The warm climate of Australia and the increase in heat related deaths indicates that Australians need to be better prepared for coping with extreme heat. A number of methods of dealing with heat were discussed in the paper, but it seemed that the reliance on air conditioning was universal, which itself contributes to carbon emissions and thus fostering climate change conditions such as further heatwaves.