TM5514:03
Human Health and Environmental Change
| External | HECS Band 2 |
Semester 2.
Staff: Dr D Canyon (Coordinator).
The extent of human activity leading to changes in the environment has increased dramatically over the past decades and we are now witnessing impacts on our atmospheric, terrestrial and marine ecosystems on a global scale. Although these changes were suggested to be temporal and limited in their effects, evidence now supports the view that many changes are persistent and global in nature with serious consequences for human health. This multidisciplinary subject was developed because the practice of public health in the coming decades will demand an understanding of the relationship between human health and the environment in which we exist. Public health professionals will be increasingly relied upon for assistance in formulating environmental policies and will be required to explain the human implications of these policies to the public. This subject is therefore designed to meet the need for a more thorough understanding of the relationship between human health and the environment for public health professionals including scientists, health practitioners, physicians and policy-makers. The content introduces students to the manner in which environmental changes can or may impact on human health. It will cover the science of global climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion, the effects of toxic pollution on the world’s ecosystems and the degradation of various environments resulting in declining biodiversity. The implications of increasing international trade coupled with population growth and resource consumption as driving forces for change will be related to the earth’s biological productivity and stability. International agreements and policies will be examined in relation to their role in affecting human health as a consequence of environmental change.
Learning Objectives:
- to develop critical thinking and the ability to analyse and evaluate environmental issues related to public health;
- to become familiar with existing problems and to learn what steps are being taken and what resources are available;
- to develop intellectually by attaining a coherent and disciplined body of skills, knowledge, values and professional ethics and to be able to adapt these skills to recognise problematic environmental situations that require improvement;
- to develop the ability to investigate environmental changes and solve human health problems related to these changes;
- to develop communication, literacy and numeracy skills via online discussion and presentation of peer-reviewed posters and papers;
- to acquire independent self-directed and life-long learning skills by way of distance online instruction methods.
Assessment by reports (30%); peer-reviewed project (50%); examination (20%).