PUBH3107: Global Public Health and the Environment

This course examines the health consequences of destabilized Earth systems in the Anthropocene. Using a planetary health framework, students will analyze how climate change, biodiversity loss, land-use change, urbanization, conflict, and globalization alter the ecological foundations of human survival. The course emphasizes coupled human-natural systems and the pathways linking environmental change to disease, injury, displacement, and health inequity. Through real-world field case studies from small island states, fragile and conflict-affected settings, and disaster contexts, students will evaluate how climate stressors interact with water systems, food systems, vector ecology, occupational risk, and health infrastructure. Students will apply systems thinking, climate attribution science, and field-based evaluation methods to assess planetary health risks and identify adaptation, mitigation, and resilience strategies. The course integrates epidemiology, environmental science, policy analysis, and implementation science to prepare students to critically evaluate climate-health evidence and translate it into decision-relevant action.

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