Planetary Health: Global Environmental Change and Emerging Infectious Disease

Will a warmer world be a sicker world? What is it about the New England landscape that supports the proliferation of Lyme Disease? How are local wildlife trade and global species invasions contributors to emerging diseases like the 2003 outbreak of monkeypox virus in the USA? We will explore these and related questions in Planetary Health. Planetary health is a timely new field focused on understanding the human health implications of human-caused disruptions to Earth's natural systems. The facet of ‘health’ that we focus on in this course is infectious disease. Students will learn how, when, where and why infectious diseases emerge in association with anthropogenic environmental impacts, specifically climate change, land-use change, and increased human interaction with animals. This course satisfies the Health and Human Biology senior capstone requirement for students studying in the planetary health theme.