Environmental Harms in Distant Polar Regions and Small Island Developing States

Abstract

The Polar Regions (PR) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are distant and relatively undeveloped. They differ in cultures, socioeconomics, geographies, flora and fauna, and annual average temperatures. Despite their differences, they are similar in having small percentages of global population, limited economic and political influence, growing reliance on imported food and goods, and producing relatively small amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. The Arctic encompasses about four million people and 30 different Indigenous Peoples. There, warming has increased exposure to infectious, vector-borne, and mental illnesses; reduced food and water security; and displaced communities through scarcity, rising sea levels, and melting permafrost that damages infrastructure. Combined, the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have over 60 million people. Their extensive and low lying coastal areas make them particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and extreme weather. Changes in temperatures and precipitation patterns in Caribbean SIDs contributed to outbreaks of infectious diseases including cholera in Haiti, malaria in Jamaica, and H1N1 influenza virus in Barbados. Previously confined to SIDS of the Indian Ocean, Chikungunya (CHIKV) appeared across Caribbean SIDS in 2013, causing significant morbidity. We review health impacts of climate change in the PR and SIDS, contrast the environmental contexts in which these are occurring, and discuss regional and global causes and consequences.