The Health Implications of Climate Change and Society's Response

SPRING 2008 Environmental Health Sciences Division The Health Implications of Climate Change and Society's Response Fridays 2-4pm - 332 Giannini PH 298.38 - CC#76642 (2 units P/NP) "Climate change is a significant and emerging threat to public health, and changes the way we must look at protecting vulnerable populations." - WHO, 2007. How and why is the global climate changing? What are the health implications of these changes and society's responses to them? What roles do health scientists have in addressing the risks created by climate change? This course will begin by providing a basic foundation in the physical and societal basis of climate change, including atmospheric structure and feedbacks, carbon cycling, and the sources and trends of human and natural greenhouse pollutant emissions. Forecasts of future climate, and their uncertainties, will be discussed, emphasizing parameters of potential relevance to human health. We will explore epidemiologic, risk assessment, and statistical methods appropriate for understanding the impact of climate on health in different populations, including reviews of current burden of disease estimates of avoidable and attributable risk. The public health implications, positive and negative, of society's efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change will be elaborated, including discussions of ethical, political and economic aspects. Each student's performance will be evaluated based on a term paper and participation in student-led sessions on selected aspects of the subject matter. The material will be presented with minimal expectation of a background in physical science, although some additional reading may be needed for students with no university science courses. Prerequisite: PH150A, PH250A/B or other introductory course in epidemiology. Grading will be pass/not pass, although individual requests for a grading option will be considered. Instructors: Justin Remais, Research Scientist, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health Kirk R. Smith, Professor of Global Environmental Health Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health For more information, contact Justin Remais <mailto:jvr@berkeley.edu><jvr@berkeley.edu> or Kirk R. Smith <mailto:krksmith@berkeley.edu><krksmith@berkeley.edu> in the Environmental Health Sciences Division.