GlobEnvir HealthClimateChange

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed “The health impacts of climate and environmental change” as one of its four Global Public Health Priorities. Environment change impacts our life in many ways, including altering food safety, quality of air, and our water and sanitation systems. WHO estimates that 12.6 million people die each year as a result of living or working in an unhealthy environment. There is a spatiotemporal heterogeneity in the exposure to risks, which can be associated with the different development paths taken by countries around the world. The improvements to public health and development observed in the last decades is challenged by climate change and other global changes. The health sector plays an essential role in monitoring environmental risks and changes, and in promoting mitigation and adaptation strategies for human and health security. Global development and increasing technological capacity have made our lives better but have also caused harmful changes to the environment and public health. This interlinkage between the local, regional, and planetary level is relevant to design effective global public health interventions. This course introduces the complex field of global environmental health and explores many existing challenges. It also will examine the concept of planetary health and the relevance to public health of current global issues including climate change, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its health-related Sustainable Development Goals, and the three Rio Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Desertification. Students will also learn about effective relationships with other disciplines and sectors, including inter-sectoral approaches in public health.