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Ease up on the elderly

23rd August 2008

The elderly "could become our best champions for climate change action”

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Climate change will hit some groups harder than others – poor people in developing countries are one example. But there is another vulnerable demographic that governments have largely failed to consider: the elderly.

Seniors will be more susceptible to the spread of diseases, evacuations from storms and floods, and the stress of heat waves – note that the majority of the 14,000 deaths during the 2003 heat wave in Europe were elderly people in France. And just as global warming is guaranteed, so is our aging population – compounded by the fact that seniors, who tend to stay at home with the heat on, have particularly large carbon footprints.

Which is why governments need to start thinking now about ways to address the specific needs of seniors – such as improving public transport networks and making them free for seniors, or by improving insulation and energy efficiency in their homes.

“Even if you took climate change out of the equation you’d want to do those things anyways to improve their quality of life – and everyone would benefit,” says Gary Haq of the University of York in the U.K. and author of Growing Old in a Changing Climate, published last week.

The elderly tend to have a lot more time for volunteering and charitable work, as well as activism, adds Mr. Haq, citing the Green Grannies in the U.S.

“They could become our best champions for climate change action.”

Published in The Green Report in The Globe and Mail

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• Tags:
• Climate Change

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