Global Health, Climate Change, and Migration Ethical Issues

• Published in: JAHR (Rijeka ) Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 87 - 106
• Main Author: Ladas, Ioannis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• ISSN: 1847-6376; 1848-7874
• DOI: 10.21860/j.15.1.4

This article examines the relationship between global health, climate change, and migration. It explores migration of both humans and animals, and its inverse. Many researchers directly link seasonal droughts, heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and floods to human health, observing, among other things, that these conditions increase contact with wildlife. As a result, there are serious concerns about the risk of future pandemics and epidemics. These issues primarily have a moral dimension because they relate to human well-being and test the fair distribution of healthcare resources. In this context, the development of a new ethic for a truly sustainable environment is deemed necessary, as the protection of the environment and global public health is a global moral responsibility and obligation. Moreover, there is a duty to protect all those displaced by a health crisis due to climate change, and the concept of a type of health asylum could be proposed, as we might soon talk about health refugees and migrants in combination with environmental ones.
Članak ispituje odnos između globalnog zdravlja, klimatskih promjena i migracija. Istražujemigracije ljudi i životinja, kao i njihove suprotnosti. Mnogi istraživači izravno povezujusezonske suše, toplinske valove, obilne kiše i poplave s ljudskim zdravljem, primjećujući,između ostalog, da ovi uvjeti povećavaju kontakt s divljim životinjama. Kao rezultat toga,postoji ozbiljna zabrinutost o riziku od budućih pandemija i epidemija. Ova pitanja imajuprvenstveno moralnu dimenziju, jer se odnose na dobrobit ljudi i testiraju pravednu raspodjeluzdravstvenih resursa. U tom se kontekstu smatra potrebnim razviti novu etiku za istinskiodrživ okoliš, jer je zaštita okoliša i globalnog javnog zdravlja globalna moralna odgovornosti obveza. Štoviše, postoji dužnost zaštite svih onih koji su raseljeni zbog zdravstvene krizeuzrokovane klimatskim promjenama te se može predložiti koncept zdravstvenog azila, jerbismo uskoro mogli govoriti o zdravstvenim izbjeglicama i migrantima u kombinaciji s onima iz okolišnih razloga.