Australia, "lucky country" or "climate change canary": Her children's future

Human health is a function of multiple determinants. Whilst bio-genetics may be somewhat immutable, we can influence the social and environmental conditions that determine health status. This chapter examines the impacts of climate change super-imposed upon decades of rural neglect, and upon rural living in a naturally difficult environment. The demonstrated manifestations of these are poor health outcomes, which renders rural children in Australia especially vulnerable to climate change. Here we propose to consider the specific features behind this vulnerability. Agriculture in Australia has long faced challenges due to the extreme variability in existing climate. International commodity market fluctuations and policies of economic rationalism have created a set of rural disadvantages that has driven many farmers off the land. Climate change is predicted to further exacerbate this trend by increasing the frequency and intensity of heat waves, droughts, fires and floods. Recent weather patterns indicate that climate science predictions are already emerging. Survival of many rural communities depends upon local agricultural prosperity, such that downturns reverberate throughout regions. Yet despite the charm of country living, rurality has become an un- healthy determinant in Australia, across multiple parameters. Concerns over future viability of farming are generating physical and mental health problems among farming families. Once responsible for Australia's reputation as being the "lucky country", Australia's agricultural sector is now in danger of morphing into a "climate change canary", an early casualty of climate change. Rural Australia is in real peril, and rural children are especially vulnerable to becoming despondent about their future. Options exist to not only salvage Australia's rural future, but to engage rural communities in mitigation; however this requires commitment to pro-active and pro-rural climate change polices. As of mid 2010, such foresight has yet to appear on the political agenda, instead, we see policies promoting abandonment of rural industries.