Climate Change, Environmental Risks and Challenges for Public Health Programs: a Global Bioethics Approach

Abstract

The frequency and intensity of extreme weather-related phenomena will be accelerated by the impact of human action on Earth"™s systems. The resulting risk scenarios remain largely underestimated, despite of the complex interdisciplinary challenges for public health programs they pose. From a Global Bioethics perspective, I analyze this set of risks and the concretions of the principle of non-maleficence applied to vulnerable populations, whose livelihoods can be more directly affected by a catastrophic combination of emerging diseases and natural-technological factors. A short review of interdisciplinary literature, and the empirical evidence obtained from recent natural catastrophes, reinforce the need for adequate sizing of available resources. Without new and more effective international agreements to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the world"™s population, the strategies and public health programs at the local or regional level will have a very limited impact.