|
14.3 Current Social, Economic and Technological Influences on Population Vulnerability
to Adverse Health Impacts
Despite rapid economic growth over the past few decades, inequalities in income
have generally increased both within and between countries, in association with
an increasingly market-driven global economy. Between 1960 and 1993, the difference
between average per capita incomes in industrialised and in developing countries
tripled (UNDP, 1996). Inequalities in health have also increased because, although
the health of most populations has improved over the past half-century, these
gains have not been shared equally. International reviews indicate that present
trends in population growth, consumption, and economic inequality are likely
to lead to ecologically unsustainable patterns of development that would undermine
the basic prerequisites for good health (UNDP, 1996, 1998; UNEP, 1999).
There is a large and growing population that suffers the double burden of poverty
and disease (WHO, 1995). This population, especially in developing countries
and countries with economies in transition (CEIT), is also increasingly having
a double disease burden, with the highest incidence of both infectious endemic
diseases (tuberculosis, dengue, cholera, etc.) and the degenerative diseases
typical of urban-industrial societies. The "technology" exists to
prevent or control most of the world's biggest killers, because they are linked
to factors such as inadequate: food supply, mosquito control, safe water, secure
shelter, access to education and healthcare (WHO, 1992). The barriers that exist
to improved public health are to a large extent the same social and political
barriers to the elimination of poverty.
Assessment of the potential for adaptation is dependent on both knowledge of
potential impacts and on the vulnerability. Vulnerability is a function of the
extent to which a health outcome is sensitive to climate change, and on the
capacity of the population to adapt to new climate conditions (Parry and Carter,
1998). Thus, technologies that strengthen adaptive capacity are technologies
that reduce vulnerability and vice versa.
|