Canada: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health

Abstract

Canada is a very large country with a very sparse population. As one of the highest-latitude countries in the northern hemisphere, it is exposed to extreme effects of climate change. Many of these effects have an impact on air quality. Canada is also one of the world’s largest economies, with its wealth tightly linked to natural resource extraction. This resource dependency has led to a remarkable awareness of the potentially negative consequences of a resource-based economy on the environment, climate change, and air quality and, hence, to a tension between economic development and environmental protection. Canada has the ability to invest significantly in the monitoring and modelling of air quality. In translating this knowledge to the medical community and the general public, health risks related to air pollution could be mitigated and better health could be promoted. However, monitoring efforts should focus far more on the spatial dimension, in addition to the temporal one, owing to the great expanse of Canada’s geography.