Planetary and human health: planetary boundaries, climate change, and disaster risk reduction

 

Module Aims: This module introduces the concept of planetary health. Participants will develop an understanding of key issues including climate change and planetary boundaries. The module is explicitly informed by the planetary health education framework (Guzman et al 2021). The module will be focused on how science can inform public policy in these areas. These issues are relevant in contexts all across the world. They will be particularly important for those pursuing careers in evidence based public health and policy making.

 

Module Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

1. Explain planetary health, sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals
2. Debate the anthropocene and planetary boundaries approach to understanding environmental issues
3. Discuss how climate change, and other environmental changes affect health
4. Appraise how action to address climate change can affect health and the role of health services in addressing climate change
5. Describe how planetary health issues are related to social justice and wider social issues
6. Develop a personal perspective on planetary health including an interconnectedness in nature
7. Characterise approaches to complex system change including advocacy and movement building

 

Pre-requisites: Principles of Public Health, Principles of Epidemiology

 

Teaching Strategy:

A mixture of taught sessions and participatory exercises.

Personal reflective log considering own role in relation to planetary health issues, with daily exercises to undertake. These will inform part of the assessment

 

Assessment:

2-part written assessment

Part 1: Structured written piece

We would like you to write an essay on a planetary health topic which links epidemiology to policy and analyses a potential policy intervention related to this.

Part 2: Reflective writing

We would like you to write a reflective piece based on a log of your learning in the module.

Module Length: 4 days