“Oceans have been absorbing the world’s extra heat. But there’s a huge payback”
England holds his arms out wide to show the size of one cubic metre of air. To heat that air by 1C, he says it takes about 2,000 joules. But to warm a cubic metre of ocean needs about 4,200,000 joules.
“By absorbing all this heat, the ocean lulls people into a false sense of security that climate change is progressing slowly.
“But there is a huge payback. It’s overwhelming when you start to go through all the negative impacts of a warming ocean.
“There’s sea level rise, coastal inundation, increased floods and drought cycles, bleached corals, intensification of cyclones, ecological impacts, melting of ice at higher latitudes in the coastal margins – that gives us a double whammy on sea level rise.
— Read on www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/15/oceans-have-been-absorbing-the-worlds-extra-heat-but-theres-a-huge-payback
The New History of Old Inequality*
I don’t read much history but I thought this article by Trevor Jackson was exceptional, and offered a genuinely different view to almost all the health and economics articles dealing with inequalities. The conclusion is eye-opening – and bleak:
The best analogies for the contemporary crisis of inequality are not found in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a time of militant unions and economic growth that preceded an eventual phase of greater equality, but that does not mean there is nothing to be learned from studying the long-term dynamics of inequality.
Likewise, there is an optimism in thinking that inequality moves in waves, and that peaks like ours will be followed by a pendulum that swings back the other way towards equality. That optimism cannot survive contact with the new history of inequality, and especially the evidence that reductions of inequality are profoundly rare aberrations in the general trend of steady social polarization.
Instead, better analogies are to be found in the early modern period, those times of stagnation and decline, of increasing extraction and the destructive politics of elite wealth defence. Ours may be not a Second Gilded Age, but a New Old Regime.
Well worth a read.
References
Equity in Primary Health Care Provision: More than 50 years of the Inverse Care Law
I guest edited a special issue of the Australian Journal of Primary Health with Dr Liz Sturgiss that reflects on more than 50 years of the Inverse Care Law.
The Inverse Care Law was first coined by Julian Tudor Hart in 1972 to refer to availability of good medical and social care varying inversely with the needs of the population served .
As we note in the editorial:
…we cannot forget the importance of income inequality as one of the primary manifestations of disadvantage. Poverty remains one of the principal determinants of how the inverse care law plays out in primary health care and it is a cross-cutting issue that affects all disadvantaged groups to varying degrees. All approaches to improve the access to primary care would benefit from specific attention to how the needs of those living in poverty are served.
The special issue includes a range of articles on the Inverse Care Law itself, Aboriginal and First Nations health, care for transgender people, access for people from culturally diverse backgrounds, and general practice. Most are open access – please take a look.
References
One other human habitation remains on Earth
Please forgive the extended quote from Wikipedia about The City and the Stars but the metaphor seems obvious, and timely:
As far as the people of Diaspar know, theirs is the only city remaining on the planet. The city of Diaspar is completely enclosed. Nobody has entered or left the city for as long as anybody can remember, and everybody in Diaspar has an instinctive insular conservatism. The story behind this fear of venturing outside the city tells of a race of ruthless invaders which beat humanity back from the stars to Earth, and then made a deal that humanity could live—if they never left the planet.
In Diaspar, the entire city is run by the Central Computer. Not only is the city repaired by machines, but the people themselves are created by the machines as well…
Once out of Diaspar, Alvin finds that one other human habitation remains on Earth. In contrast to technological Diaspar, Lys is a vast green oasis shielded by mountains from the worldwide desert.
Ben Harris-Roxas Website | Publications | micro.blog
My friend comes uninvited
It comes instead when I am fighting not an open but a guerrilla war with my own life, during weeks of small household confusions, lost laundry, unhappy help, canceled appointments, on days when the telephone rings too much and I get no work done and the wind is coming up. On days like that my friend comes uninvited. (Joan Didion, 1979)
It's hard for me to remember a time before migraine. My first one was when I was thirteen, after a day of what I later came to recognise as prodrome and aura followed by disembodied but all-consuming pain.
Everyone's migraine is different, but that doesn't stop people from recommending treatments based on their own experiences. My migraine is known as “classic migraine” or migraine with aura. I see see points of colour, become sensitive to light, get confused, and start speaking gibberish. This is known as “word salad”, which doesn't really do justice to the sensation of one's mind being unable to select the right word, of being decoupled from the ability to use language.
Migraine is the second most common cause of disability, after back pain (Steiner et al., 2020). Its causes remain elusive, though it seems likely that it's a collection of neurological and neurovascular disorders. I think (hope?) it will always be somewhat unknowable. For a while my brain doesn't work and I'm incapacitated, and then it passes. It feels like something that can't be fully known.
I've become better at managing my migraine over the years, which is simply to say that I've become better at recognising the early signs. I've tried drugs, but the trade-offs stack up quickly. Weighing up side effects and the risk of migraine changes when it's been months or, once, years since my last migraine.
I had a bad one yesterday, my worst in quite a while. I'm still fuzzy and depleted.
People who experience tinnitus are often advised to undertake cognitive restructuring, to think of tinnitus as a friend who's always with them (Fuller et al., 2020). I don't think I'll ever be able to think of migraine as anything other than a tormentor.
If there is a good aspect of migraine it's in its passing. Nausea intensifies, and for me, suddenly, relief. The weight is removed. Light becomes less harsh. Colours change. Language returns.
Sources
Didion, J. (1979). The White Album. Simon & Schuster.
Fuller, T., Cima, R., Langguth, B., Mazurek, B., Vlaeyen, J. W., & Hoare, D. J. (2020). Cognitive behavioural therapy for tinnitus. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2020(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012614.pub2
Steiner, T. J., Stovner, L. J., Jensen, R., Uluduz, D., Katsarava, Z., on behalf of Lifting The Burden: the Global Campaign against Headache. (2020). Migraine remains second among the world’s causes of disability, and first among young women: findings from GBD2019. The Journal of Headache and Pain, 21(1), 137. https://doi.org/10.1186/s10194-020-01208-0
Ben Harris-Roxas Website | Publications | Mastodon
Still time to submit your article: Equity in Primary Health Care Provision – More than 50 years of the Inverse Care Law
Dr Liz Sturgiss and I are guest editing a special issue of the Australian Journal of Primary Health on Equity in Primary Health Care Provision – More than 50 years of the Inverse Care Law.
There’s still time to submit your EOI for inclusion in the special issue, in the form of abstracts are due by 30 March 2022. Full submissions are due by 15th July 2022.
Key areas
We welcome submissions of primary research as well as commentary and review papers from anywhere in the world. We particularly seek submissions based on:
- Comprehensive primary health care for specific populations, including
– prison populations
– Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and First Nations
– culturally and linguistically diverse communities
– people living in poverty
– populations experiencing homelessness and unhoused people
– rural and remote health - Models of care and health services research
- Team based care and exploration of scope of practice
- Policy innovations and funding models
- Community-based responses to the needs of marginalised and oppressed groups
More information on the Australian Journal for Primary Health website.
Evaluation of ‘Shisha No Thanks’ – a co-design social marketing campaign on the harms of waterpipe smoking
An important paper from our Shisha No Thanks! project, led by Lilian Chan, has been published:
This is one of the first published evaluations of a health promotion intervention targeting young people to address the growing global trend of waterpipe smoking. It makes a timely and important contribution that demonstrates that co-design social marketing campaigns can raise awareness of messages about the harms of water pipe smoking among young people of Arabic speaking background.
It’s open access and free to access.
References
Speaking COVID-19: Supporting COVID-19 communication and engagement efforts with people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities
The pre-print version of this paper written with my colleagues Holly Seale, Anita Heywood, Ikram Abdi, Abela Mahimbo, Ashfaq Chauhan and Lisa Woodland is available. It provides timely evidence about the need for the development of COVID-related resources, messages and financial support for culturally diverse communities.
N.B. it’s a preprint so it hasn’t been through peer review yet.
Moon Towers
I read an article on lost objects. In it they briefly allude to moon towers, or moonlight towers, which I’d never heard of. These were 50-70m towers designed to illuminate areas up to 1km diameter areas.
The only remaining ones are in Austin, though their origins were grim:
The initial construction of these towers was in part a reaction to a local serial killer dubbed the Servant Girl Annihilator, who terrorized Austin between 1885 and 1886
Party At The Moon Tower
Informal care in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic
An important paper from Lukas Hofstaetter, Sarah Judd-Lam and Grace Cherrington from Carers NSW, which describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on informal carers in New South Wales.
The experiences of carers documented in this article highlight how pre-existing, systemic shortcomings for carers were worsened by the public health and economic crises resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. A lack of reliable information and recognition, along with insufficient financial and practical supports, have exacerbated the complexities surrounding the provision of care. Limited access to digital devices, connections, and capabilities have further disadvantaged many carers. In many cases, carers engaged in employment or education have been required to carry out these activities from their homes, often necessitating additional investment in digital devices and connections.A majority of carers, however, rely on income support payments, and the financial costs of caring have also increased at a time when many people are experiencing diminished employment security.
tld;r: carers are more stressed, isolated and financially worse off
References
“The availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need of the population served” – Submit your article to our special issue marking fifty years of the inverse care law
Dr Liz Sturgiss and I are guest editing a special issue of the Australian Journal of Primary Health on “Equity in Primary Health Care Provision: More than 50 years of the Inverse Care Law”.
The special issue will cover a range of topics, including:
- Comprehensive primary health care for specific populations, including
– prison populations
– Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and First Nations
– culturally and linguistically diverse communities
– people living in poverty
– populations experiencing homelessness and unhoused people
– rural and remote health. - Models of care and health services research.
- Team based care and exploration of scope of practice.
- Policy innovations and funding models.
- Community-based responses to the needs of marginalised and oppressed groups.
There’s more information on the special issue and the Australian Journal of Primary Health herehttps://www.publish.csiro.au/py/content/CallforPapers#1. Final submissions are due by 15 July 2022 but we’re asking that people submit EOIs in the form of an abstract by 30 March 2022.
Reflecting on 2021 for the Australian Journal of Primary Health
The past year has also seen significant changes in academic publishing. There has been an emphasis on rapid dissemination of research findings during the pandemic, increasing the prominence of pre-publication manuscripts and reinforcing the need for timely peer review. There has been a significant increase in the volume of manuscripts submitted, including to the AJPH.
At the same time, it is more difficult than ever to find peer reviewers for submitted articles. There has been a significant increase in the pressures on people’s time, through their paid jobs, but also because of juggling caring responsibilities during multiple lockdowns. Many people have been redeployed to support health systems and organisations to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australian Government’s decision to not provide any financial support to universities during the pandemic has led to thousands of jobs being lost across the sector over the past year, with more losses likely to come. Precarious employment has become even more entrenched and fewer people are in jobs that include service to the profession as part of their roles. This leads to fewer people being able to undertake reviews at the time we need high-quality peer review most.
— Read on www.publish.csiro.au/py/Fulltext/PYv27n6_ED
It’s been a pleasure being an Associate Editor for AJPH, and it was good to have this opportunity to reflect on the pst year with Virginia Lewis and Jenny Macmillan as I’m stepping down.
Ensuring culturally diverse communities aren’t left behind on the road out of COVID
“We are always engaged after there is a problem – never upfront. The damage that has been done is quite severe on the ground and there is a lot of feeling that this is racist”- Randa Kattan, CEO of the Arab Council Australia
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Croakey published a comprehensive summary of the think tank workshop hosted by the UNSW School of Population Health and organised by my colleague A/Prof Holly Seale. It features some inspiring practical activities led by culturally diverse communities, and the findings of research from across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.
“This current pandemic again highlights that there is a critical need to ensure services, communication and efforts and other pandemic strategies are designed and delivered in a culturally responsive way,” she said. Seale stressed collaboration with people from CALD backgrounds, including refugee communities, was critical to improving future pandemic plans as well as continuing ongoing COVID-19 activities.
Engage and empower: ensuring culturally diverse communities aren’t left behind on the road out of COVID