University of Adelaide study has looked at the cost burden of a warming climate

On top of the devastating effects on the environment, a warming planet will bring with it an enormous human cost as heat-related health conditions skyrocket.

Heat-related hospital admissions will skyrocket, mosquito-borne diseases will spread more easily, and more species will die out as a result of climate change, local experts warn.

A University of Adelaide study has looked at the cost burden of heat, using data on hospital admissions, the length of stay and related healthcare costs from SA Health.

“There is already a substantial temperature-attributable impact on hospital admissions, length of stay and costs, which are estimated to increase due to climate change and an increasing aged population,” the authors concluded.

“Unless effective climate and public health interventions are put into action, the costs of treating temperature-related admissions will be high.”

Healthcare costs due to heat are to rise significantly mid-century.

Public health professor Peng Bi said heat contributed to dehydration, kidney disease, mental illness, cardiovascular disease and injuries. Mosquito-borne diseases such as Ross River virus and Dengue fever were also likely to become more common. His study of the severe heatwave of 2009, when we had six consecutive days above 40C, showed higher death rates for adults aged 15 to 64. The number of heat-related hospital admissions was up to 14 times the average, ambulance call-outs were up 16 per cent and workers compensation claims also increased.

Healthcare costs due to heat are to rise significantly mid-century. Picture: iStock

Prof Bi praised the SA Health extreme-heat strategy and the action taken to ease stress on the health system by State Emergency Services and the Red Cross.

Wildlife also suffer during extreme heat events, Flinders University global ecology professor Corey Bradshaw said.

“Higher temperatures can also push species beyond their tolerance limits, especially if they cannot easily move to track their preferred temperature ranges,” he said.

“Worse still is the effect of extinction cascades – losing one species in a biological community from climate change can push dependent species toward extinction.

“If a pollinating insect disappears, the flowering plants depending on it to reproduce will also soon go extinct, too.”

Urban infrastructure – from roads and rail lines to electricity networks – is also vulnerable.

The Climate Council report, Compound Costs: How climate change is damaging Australia’s economy, presents a case for urgent action.

“The Australian property market is expected to lose $571bn in value by 2030 due to climate change and extreme weather, and will continue to lose value in the coming decades if emissions remain high,” stated the authors, led by Professor Will Steffen at the Australian National University.

“One in every 19 property owners face the prospect of insurance premiums that will be effectively unaffordable by 2030, costing 1 per cent or more of the property value per year.”

Low-lying properties near rivers and coastlines are among those at greatest risk with flood risks increasing progressively and coastal inundation risks emerging as a major threat around 2050.

Some events likely to become more common are not covered by insurance.

Port faces double whammy threat

Port Adelaide residents face twin threats from climate change as sea levels rise and storms become more intense.

They fear the worst yet hope for the best, knowing many homes will go under if the two come at once.

Port Adelaide Residents Environment Protection Group secretary Tony Bazeley says the sea comes up through the drains on a king tide.

“The council has to go around and put sandbags around the place to ensure that residents and businesses are not flooded,” he said.

“You get used to it, but it’s a real eye-opener. This is happening, you know.”

If a big storm dumped a load of rain on the Port River catchment at the same time, a large area would be in trouble.

Port Adelaide Residents Environment Protection Group secretary Tony Bazeley showing coastal erosion of the dunes at Semaphore. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Volunteers at the Estuary Care Foundation are working on nature-based solutions.

The foundation’s Catherine McMahon, of Peterhead, said seagrass, mangroves, shellfish reefs and sandbars could be used to lessen the impact.

“It stabilises the shoreline and it dampens the wave energy,” she said. “So, instead of the wave going straight on to the shoreline, it hits the seagrass, which takes out some of that energy.

“There’s actually some national guidelines from the University of Melbourne for living shorelines and given that nothing was happening here, we thought we could try to implement some of these nature-based responses and give people the chance to see that these are some of the things that can be done.”

Even Port River dolphins are challenged by climate change, marine biologist Dr Mike Bossley said.

“They’re pretty adaptable creatures, but they depend on the environment, on habitat, for … their prey,” he said.

“The prey species depend on the presence of sea grasses and mangroves and so forth (as fish nurseries). How they handle, not just the increasing temperatures, but the increasing water level is another matter as well.”

50 degrees within a decade

Adelaide is on track to become one of the world’s hottest cities, with summer temperatures reaching 50C within the next decade, according to an Adelaide University climate- change expert.

Environment Institute director Professor Robert Hill tells Saturday’s SA Weekend that Adelaide will be a “city that gets a few days most summers that reach 50C’’.

“I would say it is possible within 10 years,’’ Prof Hill said. Adelaide recorded its highest temperature of 46.6c in 2019.

In December that year, three consecutive days above 45C were recorded. On December 20 at Roseworthy, 50km north of Adelaide, a temperature of 47C was posted.

“There are not many places in Australia that are genuinely worried about that (getting to 50C) yet, but I think we are and I think parts of Sydney are,” Prof Hill said.

“It’s a matter of who gets there first – not whether, but when.’’ Prof Hill said the number of extreme heat days in the state was climbing quickly.

Adelaide recorded its highest temperature of 46.6C in January 2019, but within a decade it could be reaching 50C. Picture: AAP / Kelly Barnes

He said there used to be about six days a decade when temperatures would climb above 42C. In the past decade, that had risen to almost 50.

Prof Hill said people’s “baselines” of what constituted a hot summer were changing quickly, so instead of comparing recent hot summers to those of 20 or 30 years ago, there was a tendency to compare them to only five or six years ago. The state’s most recent summer was considered mild by most, but Prof Hill said he could “remember summers that were a lot colder than the last summer’’.

He said future generations were going to look back and wonder why more was not done to combat climate change.

“I have grandchildren. I think history will judge my generation and the one before it very poorly,’’ Prof Hill said.