BACKGROUND: Epidemiologists and environmental health practitioners, experts at understanding the complex interactions between environmental exposures and disease, are faced with understanding issues such as creating and maintaining healthy, sustainable communities. North of the Northwest Arctic Circle (-66.5º latitude) in America’s portion of the Arctic, environmental conditions such as melting of permafrost, lack of shorefast ice, and more severe storms are causing impacts on subsistence and food security, and maintaining critical infrastructure. Providing energy and drinking water and sanitation services have concerned the Arctic Council, governmental organizations such as the US Arctic Research Commission and virtually all of Alaska’s Governors. Communities are planning to meet energy and environmental quality challenges to make more sustainable choices than dependence on diesel fuel. The US Chairmanship of the Arctic Council from April 2015-17 has brought progress in some areas like water and sanitation, and addressed challenges in many others, such as economic development in marine transportation, oil/gas development and tourism sectors.
METHODS: Dr. Tony McMichael developed epidemiological and environmental health frameworks that explore and provide an assessment method for profiling and assessing the “cause behind the causes,” providing a systematic approach to connect the environment and human health. As the Arctic Council was chaired by the United States, climate change and health moved to center stage. The rate of changes in environmental conditions is seen as pressing in this region. What started out as an international effort in environmental protection now is expanding to other areas of collaboration, such as promoting economic development. Many Arctic countries have significant indigenous populations that have been able to thrive in the Arctic using traditional ecological knowledge as well as western science. Taken together, these hold promise for addressing “One Health” and stewardship issues. Epidemiologic indicators can assist decision makers in developing solutions.
RESULTS: This presentation connects environment and human health in a subset of Alaska’s rural and remote communities located in the Northwest Arctic Borough, while incorporating “One Health” perspectives respecting the tradition of reverence for biodiversity, traditional knowledge of ecosystems, and reliance on a subsistence-based economy. It identifies major categories of impacts from climate change.
CONCLUSIONS: Climate change impacts on the environment and human health are most evident in polar regions of the Arctic. A menu of viable options will be of great interest to policy makers responsible for responding to the mitigation and adaptation challenges through existing stakeholders, refining governance mechanisms, and moving towards sustainability.