Global Change and Human Health

Global Environmental Change and Human Health, is the fourth within the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). It is being developed as a logical complement to the three ongoing ESSP projects. Those three projects address the global carbon cycle (Global Carbon Project, GCP), the global water system (Global Water System Project, GWSP), and Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS). Changes in each of those three systems influence, via diverse pathways, human wellbeing and health.

It is widely, often intuitively, understood that human societies and the wellbeing and health of their populations depend on the flow of materials, services and cultural enrichment from the natural world. Nevertheless, to date there has been little formal description and study of the relationships between global environmental changes (GEC) and human health, and of the ways in which social institutions and processes modulate those relationships. For several human-induced global environmental changes, particularly changes to the world’s climate system and to the ultraviolet radiation-filtering functions of the stratosphere, there has been a recent increase in research into the main health risks. But for most other GECs little formal research on the risks to human health has been carried out. Indeed, among the practitioners of the various scientific disciplines engaged in studying the processes and impacts of GECs – including environmental sciences, ecology, geography, economics, etc. – there has been relatively little recognition that ecosystem disruptions, species extinctions, degradation of food-producing systems, the perturbation of cycling of elements and nutrients, and prevailing forms of urbanisation pose risks to the wellbeing and health of human populations.

Against this background the need has now been recognised within the Earth System Science Partnership for a Joint Project to increase, strengthen, and then support and coordinate the (now slowly evolving) international research network in relation to this topic.

Project Goals 1. Identify and quantify health risks posed by GEC, now and in the reasonably foreseeable (scenario) future: Develop methods of modelling/understanding tradeoffs between economic development, environmental change and human health. b. Take account of the roles of culture, social institutions and technology choices in modulating health risks, affecting vulnerability and influencing policy responses. 2. Describe spatial (geographic, intra/inter-population) and temporal differences in health risks, to better understand vulnerabilities and priorities for interventions. 3. Develop adaptation strategies for reducing health risks, assess their cost-effectiveness, and communicate results (especially to decision-makers). 4. Foster research training programs, to boost networked international research capacity in GEC and Human Health.

Science Plan: Global Environmental Change and Human Health Download English Version