Recommendations

Below is a compiled list of recommendations. Click each recommendation to be taken back to the section of the book which it appears

     Chapter 1: Assessing the Impact of Climate Change

1. Recognize that climate change is an established scientific phenomenon.
2. Climate change policy should have a greater focus on vulnerable populations, including rural communities, which are at an increased risk to climate change-related threats.
3. Encourage and support education at all levels about the realities and potential impacts of climate change and ecosystem disruptions, particularly within local contexts.
4. Approaches to climate change policy should be well-informed and solution-based to produce more positive attitudes towards climate action and provide a hopeful path forward.
   

   Chapter 2: Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies

5. Mitigation and adaptation strategies should include knowledge translation mechanisms to assure that all stakeholders are equipped with knowledge and tools necessary to adapt to climate change.
6. Encourage rural municipal governments to fulfill the BC Climate Action Charter objectives and to adopt Planh recommendations.
7. Rural communities should perform an impact assessment of local healthcare activities on their natural environment when planning climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
8. Rural physicians should be encouraged to build public awareness of climate change and support mitigation and adaptation efforts, particularly in reference to environmental health concerns.
9. Vulnerability factors should be identified at a local level for effective climate change mitigation and adaptation planning as risks vary between regions.
10. There should be a focus on sustainable and equitable economic recovery rather than rebuilding the pre-COVID system.
    

    Chapter 3: Healthy Rural Communities Responding to Climate Change and Ecosystem Disruption

11. Rural community adaptation to the challenges of climate change and ecosystem disruption should be built on a strong local foundation addressing climate hazards, resources, and opportunities for a strategic response.
12. Evidence-based information should be used to support emergency response planning.
13. Local healthcare, human and infrastructure resources should be inventoried and considered in emergency response planning.
14. Local healthcare should be built on generalist practice with strategic enhanced skills and supported by existing resources and infrastructure.
15. Physicians should enhance their environmental literacy so that they can support community resilience to climate change and ecosystem disruption.
16. Community health service needs should be quantified based on catchment population characteristics and risk profile in order to meet those needs in an appropriate and sustainable manner.
17. Virtual care should be supported by communications infrastructure and networking.
    

    Chapter 4: Data Transparency to Support Rural Community Sustainability

18. Rural health services should be systematically organized to respond to the needs of the population and support rural health service planners.
19. Local health services leaders should be encouraged to engage in quality improvement activities and monitor the impact through local data.
20. Rural populations should be linked to the service reach by creating hospital population catchments.
21. In order to understand transport patterns, the relationship between local health services and supportive regional health services should be tracked with respect to local patients.
22. Catchment data should be enhanced to include environmental assets and liabilities related to the local population and landscape.
23. Rural population health data should be used to monitor and evaluate the impact of transformation and rural resilience to climate change and ecosystem disruption.
    

    Chapter 5: Reconnecting with Nature

24. Indigenous teachings, such as Two-Eyed Seeing, should be acknowledged and learned from to better understand how our natural environment influences our wellbeing.
25. Further research into the health benefits of spending time in and connecting with our natural environment should be supported.
26. Exposure to nature from a young age to teach its value and importance should be promoted, particularly in childhood education.
27. All communities and schools should organize initiatives to promote connecting with and preserving nature, such as establishing community gardens.
28. Physicians should consider adopting nature prescription programs for patients as part of their process of care.
29. At least 2 hours per week should be spent outside, interacting with nature and our natural environment, to benefit physical and mental health.
30. We should honour, respect, and invoke the terms of reconciliation put forward by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in their Calls to Action report and beyond.
31. Ecosystem-based conservation planning should be promoted to maintain and restore natural ecological integrity.
    

    Chapter 6: Behavioural Determinants of Climate Action and Collective Change

32. Identification of and efforts to address the causes of the “Green Gap” – the space between intention and action – are required with regard to adopting sustainable, adaptive, and resilience-oriented practices in the face of climate change.
33. The collectivist nature of rural communities should be drawn upon to promote the adoption of pro-environmental behaviour and climate adaptation strategies which are key to enhancing transformational resilience at the community level.
34. Research should take an integrated approach, using systems-based thinking, to establish a clear understanding of causes of barriers to the adoption of pro-environmental behaviour.
35. Educational resources should be developed that focus on encouraging and supporting social change to promote the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours.
    

    Chapter 7: Transformative Resilience

36. Transformation of our current systems should be guided by values of sustainability, collective action, long-term thinking and bottom-up approaches.
37. Recognize that transitioning from the current dominant system to an emerging system will involve innovation and openness to change.
38. Consider and address the needs of the Earth’s complex ecological and natural systems in transformative processes.
39. Promote education and relationship building to strengthen the resilience of rural communities.
40. Transformation should accommodate the needs of vulnerable populations.
41. Recognize constructive disruption as a necessary part of the processes of transformation and change.
    

    Chapter 8: Sustainability

42. Recognize that the fundamental principle of sustainability must underpin our economic and social activities.
43. Respect the land as if it is borrowed from our children and children’s children. Return it to them better than we found it.
44. Give precedence to practices of sustainable growth versus profit maximization in research and program evaluation.
45. Disincentivize exploitation of the environment through legislation and taxation.
46. Consider and address the needs of vulnerable communities when building sustainable systems.
47. Prioritize the collective good of local populations in decisions of land and resource use.
    

    Chapter 9: Youth

48. Encourage and champion young people as leaders in the fights against climate change.
49. Develop more support systems for youth struggling with climate change-related mental health issues, such as eco-anxiety, and make these resources widely accessible.
50. Make strategic investments to strengthen the involvement of children and youth in responding to climate change and ecosystem disruption through research, education and leadership opportunities.
51. Ensure access to comprehensive climate change and ecosystem disruption curriculum, with a focus on positive solutions for the future, for children and youth.
52. Facilitate youth involvement in our political and democratic systems at every level to support climate change mitigation and adaptation.
53. Expose children and youth to nature through social and educational programs to foster respect for and understanding of the natural world.