Ecology and Health: Climate, Food, and Justice

3 credits · Divinity School

Global climate change is the most pressing issue of our lifetime due to its potential to disrupt almost every facet of daily life. Everything from food production and transportation to medical supply chains and healthcare delivery will be affected by our changing climate. This semester-long seminar invites students from across disciplines to engage the relationship between our ecological crisis and human health and flourishing. While this topic is far-reaching, we will enter the discourse by first considering our current food system, how it both contributes to climate change and is affected by it, as well as its relationship to poor and inequitable health outcomes. The course will then move to consider the diverse ways climate change will affect community flourishing from air pollution and heat waves to mental health and migration. We will consider both the problems that arise and practices of care in response. Throughout the course, we will consider ethical questions concerning justice and intergenerational ethics. We will fundamentally ask, “How do we care for our communities in the midst of and in response to ecological change?” Faculty for the course will include community colleagues/practitioners with expertise in farm management and policy development along with Vanderbilt School of Medicine faculty and staff. [3]