Climate and Health Education: Defining the Needs of Society in a Changing Climate
Description:... The adverse effects of climate change are now apparent and present urgent and complex challenges to human health and health systems globally. There is an imperative for quick action on many fronts: to recognize and respond to climate-health threats; prevent climate change at its source by reducing greenhouse gas emissions; support “greener” systems throughout the economy, including healthcare; understand the health co-benefits of adaptation and mitigation; and communicate effectively about these issues. Climate change is intertwined with historical and structural inequities and effective solutions must actively improve health equity. To meaningfully address these deep and interconnected issues, there is a growing imperative across the educational landscape to move beyond existing constraints toward new ways of thinking and learning. Many have recognized that we must create societal systems that account for the health of all people now and into the future while simultaneously preserving and improving the environment on which our life depends. Such transformations rest on the skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes of the workforce, not just in health and health care, but within all sectors. However, despite the health crisis of climate change at our doorstep, development of climate and health curricula is nascent, although is a growing consideration of leaders globally. Because the health impacts from climate and planetary change are so myriad and intertwined, sectors must work together like never before to move beyond existing silos of practice to a shared landscape and vision – in practice, but first in education.
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