Changed climate will cook elderly people

"Heating, cooling and other energy costs in medical facilities have increased about four-fold since the year 2000, while the food served in hospitals becomes more and more expensive as oil and natural gas prices continue to climb," says Dr Bednarz.

Catholic facilities should adapt their services to mitigate the worst of climate change because it is the right thing to do, not because it is good business. But if we do not, we just may well go out of business: a major insurance industry report released in Boston last week warned that climate change ultimately threatens to bankrupt even the largest insurers, noting catastrophic losses in 2004-5 of $US75 billion.

Worldwide, heatwaves claim thousands of lives, killing more people each year than floods, tornadoes and hurricanes combined. If the Australian Greenhouse Office is right, an increase of 2C by 2030 means that a city like Canberra could have an average temperature in the summer of almost 30C. Canberra's summer high now - 42.2C - may reach 44.2C.

When the human body gets to 42C, it starts to cook. The heat causes the proteins in each cell to change irreversibly, like an egg white as it boils. Even before that, the brain shuts down because of a lack of blood coming from the overworked, overheated heart. Muscles stop working, the stomach cramps and the mind becomes delirious. Death is inevitable.

And it is the most vulnerable - the old, the young, the sick and poor people - who will go first. Climate change will indeed test the resolve of Catholic and other aged care systems, to pursue a “preferential option for the poor”.