GoodGeist
A podcast on sustainability, hosted by Damla Özlüer and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network. Looking at sustainability issues, communications, and featuring global guests from a wide variety of sectors such as business, NGOs and government.
GoodGeist
Climate, People & Health, with Didem Evci Kiraz
Climate change is more than just an environmental issue—it's a pressing public health crisis. Join us as we sit down with Professor Emine Didem Evci Kiraz, a pioneering climate health expert from Turkey, who shares her inspiring journey from medicine to climate action.
Discover how climate change is impacting human health, from the increase in diseases and disruptions to mental health, to the heightened risks facing vulnerable populations. She passionately argues for prioritising adaptation strategies and calls for urgent action to integrate health considerations into our climate change plans, especially as we look toward COP29 in Baku.
We also explore the critical role urban environments play in climate change mitigation. With a prediction that seven out of ten people will reside in cities by 2050, the World Health Organization's Healthy Cities initiative becomes pivotal in shaping resilient urban spaces.
Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.
Good Geist, a podcast series on sustainability hosted by Damla Özler and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everyone, you are listening to Good Guys, the message on sustainability which is brought to you by the DNS Network, the global network of agencies dedicated to making the world a better place. This is Damla from Mira Agency, istanbul, and.
Speaker 3:This is Steve from Creative Concern in Manchester. This podcast series explores global sustainability issues, how they're communicated and what creativity can do to make positive change happen.
Speaker 2:So in this episode we're going to talk to Emine Didem Evcikiraz Didem. Professor Didem a scientific committee member of WHO, the climate health expert of UNDP Turkey, advisor of National Healthy Cities Network, city health doctor and climate health doctor in Climate Clinic in Turkey. Professor Kiraz worked in Ministry of Health, department of Foreign Relations, international Organizations Officer and General Directorate of Primary Healthcare Services. She's a public health professor in Aydan Adnan Menderes University. Well, basically, she is the one to talk to about climate and health.
Speaker 3:Yes, she is Damla. I'm going to carry on because this is and this is a short, abridged version of the resume. So she studied environmental protection, ecology and biodiversity in Britain with a scholarship from the Ministry of Health and carried out the projects around the Council of Europe and continues her studies in the field of climate change and health effects with the ministry and in academia around urbanisation and climate change. And she's the writer of the first climate and health training module in Turkey and the writer of the first national and local climate change and public health strategy for the nation. So, professor, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to Damla and myself.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much for your invitation and also kind introduction to me, damla and Steve. I am very happy to be with you on this platform.
Speaker 2:We are too, professor. It is great to have you today. Let's start with your own journey. How did you decide to put your medicine career in favor of climate action?
Speaker 4:I'm a medical doctor and public health doctor. The main duty of public health doctor is to monitor, protect, prevent, improve and early diagnose the health of individuals and community. It is basically based on risk management.
Speaker 4:We are environmental health detectives. We are working on development of health living spaces and focused on city health and climate change impact on the city. I have been and worked on climate and health platforms since 1996, national and international level. During this process I saw that I may not have an active role in the mitigation aspect of climate change, not more than individual actions, but I can do a lot in the adaptation action.
Speaker 3:Wow. So and I have to admit, Damla, I was excited about this edition because I wrote my first report on climate change and health impacts you ready In 1999. So before the millennium. So this is a topic I love. So, Professor, a healthy future for all planet and people, that's the goal of climate action. But tell our listeners, if we narrow it down to human health, what does climate change do for human health?
Speaker 4:It is quite and deeply affecting. Like Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring Carson's book Silent Spring. It affects not only humans, but also animals, plants, environments, cities, services and systems. From one health perspective, expected climate hazards that may affect our health, individual and community level, are extreme weather events, change in water resources, sea level rise, heat and cold waves, change in air quality, increased ultraviolet radiation. Eight impacts of these hazards are heat and cold-related diseases, side effects of radiation, health problems caused by change in air quality, food and water related diseases, changing infectious disease agents, vector associated diseases, mental health problems, new and emerging diseases. The more vulnerable populations that encounter climate signals and lower their capacity to adapt to climate change, the more likely they will be damaged by climate change.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, this is a dark point to start, but what can we do sometimes? So this one will be, of course, a rhetorical statement, since we know the answer, but I will still say it. It seems that climate action is not only about the environment, it's a public health issue. So can you elaborate this perspective for us a little bit, professor?
Speaker 4:Yes, of course. Six main impacts emerge in regions, countries, cities, neighborhoods and households that are under the influence of climate signals Increase in disease, loss of function and disability, and that's system destruction, service interruption, loss of money, time, employment, productivity. These six impacts show that climate change is the most important public health problem. Showed that climate change is the most important public health problem. The world is currently 1.4 degrees Celsius warmer than in previous years. Time is limited for 1.5 degrees Celsius, says between 2030 and 2050, 250,000 plus mortality are expected every year.
Speaker 4:Who will die and why? We will die from preventable causes such as diarrhea and malaria. The elderly will die due to extreme heat, children will die due to malnutrition, pregnant women will give birth prematurely or will not be able to breastfeed after birth due to heat, thirst and lack of nutrition, and babies will die. We place a lot of pressure, especially on young people, whom we define as the climate warriors of the future. Young people suffer from eco or climate and city. We do not notice climate sustainability, for a variety of climateensitive disease agents and vectors has increased in Europe, For example, vibrio, west Nile virus, dengue fever, chikungunya, zika, malaria, leishmaniasis and ticks, so not just diseases such as plaque and hantavirus, carried by rodents, also very in incidence and location. As the seas rise, continents disappear and humanity moves rapidly, carrying disease factors with them. And then there are many more public health problems that I cannot explain and that we do not know about.
Speaker 3:So, professor, I've got a question about what all of this means for the design of our cities. But before we Go to that, I just wanted to ask one question, because I mentioned the report I worked on many years ago on health impacts of climate change, and I remember we said that, even though most of the impacts were really negative, there were potentially a small number of positive outcomes, such as fewer older people dying from extreme cold, the people dying from extreme cold. But do you think where we stand with the science now?
Speaker 4:the negative impacts are so overwhelming that we can't even talk about any positives from climate change and health. Siti, I'm not sure that I can talk about the positive part. Positive part, but maybe I can say green therapy. Maybe because it is, it is a human aspect about green therapy, especially in the city, in the cities, and now this is our agenda. Because of this reason, safe, healthy and resilient cities, neighbourhoods.
Speaker 3:Yeah, which brings us beautifully onto my next question, actually, which is you're a member of the scientific committee of WHO Healthy Cities? Which is, you're a member of the scientific committee of WHO Healthy Cities and as we predicted that seven out of 10 people will live in cities by 2050, we know that urban environments present major health challenges, don't they? So how should we change our methods of urbanization and city design to create healthy cities and healthy people?
Speaker 4:and city design to create healthy cities and healthy people. All these efforts about safe, healthy and resilient cities aim to act under the concept of one health, without leaving anybody behind and by defending the health cities principles of WHO in every political decision In order to protect the whole city, neighborhood and household level from the health impacts of climate change. Hazard, impact, vulnerability and risk analysis should be conducted first. You must have a list of climate-sensitive diseases and you must have the manpower and money to combat them. Health impact assessment principles should be applied in every plan, program and project made for the city and in every decision taken. I can say that leaders without a public health perspective cannot manage the future.
Speaker 2:Well, we're talking about public health with the climate perspective, but there is also another story here, I feel. Is it the I'm sorry it is the health sector's vulnerabilities in face of the climate crisis, because we're talking about the public health, but also we have this huge health sector that affects it. So can you paint us a picture of the health sector standing in this crisis?
Speaker 4:Within the scope of climate change, the most vulnerable sector in the world is the health sector. Why vulnerable sector in the world is the health sector? Why, when climate change makes all sectors vulnerable, expectations from health services will increase. The need for resilient health systems will increase. Health institutions are not yet sufficiently climate-friendly structures, yet sufficiently climate-friendly structures. The health and climate change awareness of the health workforce is increasing, but it is not sufficient. They cannot yet see the extent of disease burden due to the climate-sensitive diseases that I just mentioned before.
Speaker 4:It is thought that smart systems can handle everything. However, the mind is connected with energy. Intelligent healthcare systems can become mindless at any time. Climate change will also have an impact at the household level. People will not be able to come to the hospital or family health center and will need service at home, such as elderly and those with non-communicable disease. These will need to receive priority health care quickly, urgently. All of these needs to be planned quickly with the city health and climate change action plans. These cannot only be health sector services. Social and municipal services must work together.
Speaker 3:Wow. So what this makes me think of so much Damla is we have here in the UK, professor, we keep having so many conversations about adaptation being really urgent and whether our systems are ready and you mentioned social services as well as health services and how they're very much the front line of all of this but with the health service and the health sector and adaptation, are we prepared for what is coming, do you think?
Speaker 4:What do you think? After all, I have said yes, the answer, after all the work we have done for Turkey, I can say that there's no region without any risk of climate change. I think also in UK, but it is also true that we have cities and regions that can be quickly made risk-free. Stephen.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, that's the hope I was hoping for, because it's so dark in there, but we still have hope and we have to act quickly, but we can do it. That is the emotion I was looking for, professor. Thank you very much for that. So this brings us what to do to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Speaker 4:We must repeatedly increase health adaptation capacity Danla in face of climate change. We prepared in Turkey 2024-2030 climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy and action plans. In order to protect public health from the negative impacts of climate change, it is beneficial to adopt two priority strategic objectives in our plans. One, straining the infrastructure for evidence-based analysis, assessment and reporting on climate change in field of health, and increasing research and development studies. Two straining the capacity, cooperation and awareness on climate change and health perspective in all institutions and organizations at national and local levels.
Speaker 3:So a lot of work to be done. I would say so, Professor. You'll be headed to COP29 in Baku in a few days, just about when this will actually be released. So what do you expect from that meeting, and what leadership will it bring?
Speaker 4:I expect political determination within the scope of health and climate change and that is determination will be ensured by each sector, including the health title in their climate change action plans Following items. I will say that it must be done now, right now. Yesterday was late. Today we have a chance. Tomorrow is too late. Today was late. Today we have a chance. Tomorrow is too late.
Speaker 4:Climate signals impact size, which population are affected, especially taking into consideration the groups that are not addressed, including women and young people. But they can change in UK, in Turkey can change in the UK and in Turkey. Vulnerability and risk analysis should be prepared at the household, neighborhood, city, region and country level. A list of climate-sensitive diseases should be created for each city and integrated into climate analysis with the help of geographical information systems. The real risk can only be determined this way. Climate change and public health early warning system it is so, so important which are arranged according to climate sensitivity and climate adaptation capacity of each citizen, the final recipient being the public and which provide intermittent notification when climate signals are likely to occur or according to current climate scenarios.
Speaker 4:Climate change and health professionals, researchers, climate and health research ethic rules, trainers and training, curricula, modules, methodology, climate change and health. Social evidence pool. I will need a social evidence pool as soon as possible. Pool as soon as possible. We should listen to neighborhoods, listen to citizens of the cities. Monitoring of climate determines health. You cannot monitor the health effects of climate change with all existing health monitoring models. Monitoring models, health surveillance systems should be created by addressing climate signals and incorporating vulnerability and risk analysis to create a working culture with young people and women in order to all these with quality and strength, repeatedly increasing the share of climate finance allocated to health. Local climate and health adaptation action plans for each city, of course, and also we should work for methodology for cities resilient to climate and health impacts.
Speaker 2:Wow, so much work to do so little time, and I thought we didn't have a problem like climate change. No, damla, don't go there, okay, I won't go there in this episode, but I will definitely go there in some episodes, yes, but still, I just want to ask again that are we prepared for this Professor?
Speaker 4:Not yet I can't say that.
Speaker 4:But also in some COP meetings. I saw that, especially COP24, who gave some report, special report and also COP28, climate and health declaration. They are so important tools for us. Also. Lancet Group, lancet cut down reports provide a crucial monitoring methodology. It is enough. Not In fact. Health is being overshadowed by climate change mitigation action. Health is a main issue in the access of climate change adaptation action. It should not remain a minor title under the social sector. It should not remain a minor title under the social sector. It should not be seen only as a health service.
Speaker 3:It should be considered as one health health for all, city health, health for all policies in the climate change world, danla, Wow, so so much to think about it. It makes me think so much, professor, when, when you started this podcast and you talked about rachel carson's silent spring, um, and I often say to people when that, when they ask, why are you an environmentalist? And uh, and they think that I'm going to talk about some huge love of nature or I just love trees so much, or I love rabbits and bunnies and birds and flies and everything so much. But I always say to people I read this amazing book called Silent Spring, which is all about human health, and it made me realize that we are just so much part of an ecosystem and if we ignore that, we put our own health as a species at risk. And so Rachel Carson was the start of my environmental journey all those years ago. So it's so wonderful to hear you speak about that.
Speaker 3:But we won't go into a discussion around Rachel Carson now, even though I would like to, because I'm a big fan. And then maybe, danla, we could do Jane Jacobs as well, because I love Jane Jacobs as well. We do cities and health and climate all together. But, professor, it's our final question and our network is ironically called Do Not Smile, because we know that we need to make sustainability a subject that brings happiness into the world. So what object, place or person always makes you smile?
Speaker 4:My husband. My husband said that please say me first, and I, my husband, and also this seaside and the surprises, all of surprises in my life oh my god, ask a mediterranean this question, you will always get the sea, the loud ones and the emotional outcome.
Speaker 3:Steve I know it's amazing, isn't it? It's uh, no, and, to be honest, I know that the both of you live so close to the sea. Well, damla, you're often by the sea, aren't you? So, yes, um, I can see it now, even though I am a long way away. Mind you, the uk is an island. We have the sea all around us, so, uh, I can see the sea as well. I've loved this conversation so much, um, and I don't think, dam, we've had the chance to talk about health and climate change properly on the podcast before, so it's really great that we've been able to dive into it today. It's been an amazing conversation.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, professor, and also thanks to everyone who has listened to our Good Guys podcast, brought to you by the Do Not Smile network of agencies to you by the Do Not Smile network of agencies, and make sure you listen to future episodes, where we'll be talking to more amazing people about how we can work together to create a more sustainable future. So, professor Damla, see you soon.
Speaker 1:Good Geist, a podcast series on sustainability hosted by Damla Özler and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network.
