Climate change impacts the environment in many ways and is a major threat to our health and safety. As we experience more climate change events, it is important that we as public health practitioners learn and explore how we can bring awareness to the impacts of climate change to our health and advocate for those who are most impacted. This course will explore the intersection of public health, climate change, and social justice. We will focus on how climate change affects vulnerable populations and communities and discuss solutions and methods we can use to address these issues. Topics covered in this course include introduction to climate change and its impacts on health, climate change communication methods, exploring how climate change is discussed in the media, environmental health, extreme climate events, mental health, reproductive justice, environmental justice, air and water quality, food security, and safe and affordable housing. There will be a special focus on vulnerable populations, community engagement, and advocacy when discussing each topic. Students will examine climate change issues within and outside of Philadelphia and research effective community engagement methods that help advocate for health equity. The course will include lectures, readings, group discussions, in class and out of class exercises, and presentations. Evaluation will be based on participation, presentations, and assignments.
Climate change has been called the most pressing public health crisis of the 21st century. This course will tackle the intersectional issues that climate change requires us to consider for public health and the design of cities. As such, the course will be offered jointly between the MPH program and the School of Design. The overall structure of the course will be a set of community-based design projects that look to raise climate change risk awareness across disciplines and to identify strategies (policies, programs, projects) to ameliorate or adapt to those risks with health outcomes used as the benchmark for success. In this way, the course touches on both Climate Action and Societal Resilience. The geographic focus of the course will be the Urban environment, with a strong focus on Philadelphia. The course will be purposefully interdisciplinary, recognizing that initial group projects must include developing a shared vocabulary between the different students. Key to our success is a more holistic integration of climate change thinking into professional student training and a common ground on which to collaborate.