Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health

This open-access book explores the challenges of climate disruption and presents solutions, focusing on the public health impacts of climate change and engaging diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership. It highlights areas that will resonate with the public, faith leaders, researchers, and students across disciplines.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 417 pages
Publication date: 03 August 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Climate disruption poses significant challenges that encompass air pollution, climate change, extreme weather events, and their associated health impacts. These challenges include heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity, chronic diseases, malnutrition, and mental well-being. The impact of humans on climate change has been extensively documented through published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, planetary health, and human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely, as scientists have concluded that changes in climate have resulted in new weather extremes, including floods, storms, heat waves, droughts, and fires, leading to over 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the past 20 years.

Previous research on the health impacts of climate change primarily relied on epidemiologic approaches and outcomes, with limited attention to multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers, and policy makers. Furthermore, there was minimal focus on faith-based and ethical approaches to addressing this problem.

The solutions and actions explored in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all guided by ethics, advocacy, and policy, with a special emphasis on marginalized and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas that we believe will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers, and students across disciplines, including the humanities, and policy makers.

Weight: 676g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030311278
Edition number: 1st ed. 2020