Environmental Change and Health: Impacts, Inequalities, Actions

This essay discusses the profound impact of global environmental change on human health, highlighting how human actions disrupt vital environmental systems and exacerbate health disparities. It emphasizes that continued environmental destruction hinders the achievement of UN millennium health goals and underscores the critical role of health professionals in mitigating these impacts. The essay identifies key risks, including altered infectious disease patterns, food yield impacts, extreme weather events, ecosystem impairment, population displacements, and loss of lives. Furthermore, it reflects on the intricate link between environmental changes, such as water and soil erosion, and health disparities, particularly in low-income countries. The author proposes future actions, including advocacy, public awareness campaigns, monitoring environmental health impacts, and promoting local adaptive responses, to combat environmental change and its associated health hazards. The essay also mentions the need for increased focus on health disparities resulting from unequal access to environmental fundamentals, advocating for social policies that address these inequalities.

Running head: GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND HEALTH 1
Global Environmental Change and Health
Name
Institution
Professor’s Name
Date

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND HEALTH 2
Global Environmental Change and Health
The publication discusses the impact of the global environmental change on human
health and life in general. The environmental systems such as the system of climate have been
changing as a result of human actions. The systems play a vital role in supporting human health
and life processes. Their depletion and disruption have led to more challenges in tackling health
disparities. With the continued destruction of the environment, it will be hard to attain the
millennium health goals of the UN. The role of health professionals in the prevention and
reduction of health impacts of global environmental change is significant (Brauch et al., 2011).
The global environmental change health impacts vary among countries. For instance,
people living in African countries are more likely to lose their years of healthy life than those in
European countries. Low-income countries are much more likely to have adverse health effects
as well as vulnerable sub-populations. The risks of environmental change on the health of
populations are severe and far-reaching. Resolving the risks needs different approaches from
those used for the common challenges that environmental contamination presents
(Butler, 2016).
The main risks that result from global environmental change include the following.
i. Changes in infectious disease patterns
ii. Food yields impacts
iii. Impacts of heat waves as well as other extreme events
iv. Impairment of functioning of ecosystems
v. Vulnerable population displacements
vi. Loss of lives.

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND HEALTH 3
I have learned various things from the publication. For instance, changes in the
environment like water changes as well as soil erosion, cause health disparities. It also
exacerbates differences in the economic conditions, social and human capital levels, political
power as well as a dependency on the local environment (Pinkerton & Rom, 2013). The
differential risks of health show the broader issues of availability of both local and global public
goods. Global changes in the environment have also led to the privatization of most of the arable
land in the world, leading to declining populations of wild lives such as fish, wild plants and
animals. Therefore, social policies should have an increased focus on health disparities that
result from unequal access to the fundamentals of the environment (Luber & Lemery, 2015).
There is an intricate link between human health and climate change. For instance, the
increased drought in sub-Saharan Africa leads to increased HIV infection incidence, due to the
movement of the poor farming families from rural areas to the urban centers where there are
unsafe conditions that enhance sex work as well as unprotected sex (Butler, 2016).
In the future, I would do various things to combat environmental change in health
hazards. For instance, I would use my particular knowledge, political leverage and opportunity
to ensure the establishment of preventive actions through advocacy and direct participation
(Pinkerton & Rom, 2013). The actions include promotion of public awareness, monitoring and
reporting health impacts of changes in the environment, as well as proposing and advocating
local adaptive responses. Furthermore, I would run an educational campaign for patients
through the distribution of pamphlets and posters for use in the waiting rooms of doctors (Luber
& Lemery, 2015).

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND HEALTH 4
References
Brauch, H. G., Spring, Ú. O., Mesjasz, C., Grin, J., Kameri-Mbote, P., Chourou, B., Dunay, P.,
& Birkmann, J. (2011). Coping with Global Environmental Change, Disasters and
Security: Threats, Challenges, Vulnerabilities, and Risks. Berlin, Germany: Springer
Science & Business Media.
Butler, C. (2016). Climate Change and Global Health. Wallingford, England: CABI.
Luber, G., & Lemery, J. (2015). Global Climate Change and Human Health: From Science to
Practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Pinkerton, K. E., & Rom, W. N. (2013). Global Climate Change and Public Health. Berlin,
Germany: Springer Science & Business Media.