In this last section we will consider the effects of our changing climate on human health and especially focus holistically on community health and the built environment (food, exposure to nature etc..).
Thur Jan 23
Energy Production, Fossil Fuels and Air Pollution
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- Please read this Global Air Pollution Kids (Here are some points I made in class about this paper-SlidesReviewAirKidsPollutionClimate)
- Here are the slides from class today: AirIntro2025SC
- Here is a copy of the images from your “Gallery Walk”! EnergyGalleryWalkSlides25SC
Fri Jan 24
Climate Change and Air Quality-Wildfires and Smoke
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- Please read the following three short articles. SuranFiresExposingMorePeople2023, VelsquezQuantifyingExposureKidsCA2023, BalmesSchoolsCleanAirSpaces?2023
- There is a ton of material available on health and climate change. I did want you to be aware of the following resources but you do not need to look over them!
Mon Jan 27
Food Systems and Health
Tues Jan 28
Community Health and the Built Environment
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- Juule et al Walkability and Greenspace 2023
- https://www.walkscore.com/
- https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/smart-location-mapping#walkability
- And here is the direct link to the interactive map at the website above. https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=f16f5e2f84884b93b380cfd4be9f0bba
- Here is the link to the Google slides to share an example of a Walkable and UNWalkable neighborhood! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_f8CcSStAFBh92kcRYRuj4bkua-LeRd0IsAg-pa4Ad0/edit?usp=sharing
Wed Jan 29
Nature Contact and Health
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- Read this (focus on Introduction and Discussion and Browse through methods and results) Greenness+DepressionEHP2019
- Consider checking out this Podcast that goes with the paper
- We will also talk about risk and risk perception! Consider looking at this before class New England Journal of Medicine-What do we die of? (Then and Now)
- Office Hours Wed after class until 2:30 in my office.
Thur Jan 30
–>>Final Exam 8-10am 410 Regents (sorry I did not choose this time!!) <<–
Make sure your “Final Projects” are finished by the end of the day-5pm-Thank you for being responsible students!
Study Suggestions Final
Review material from this last section of the course in detail. Again, use your handouts to guide your studying. A couple specifics….
- For the food and climate paper, do you understand what we mean by the eutrophication potential? We mentioned this in class but I did not make a big deal out of it. Do you know what this means?
- In your “foodprint” calculations, how do you think they calculate the carbon and nitrogen impacts? I think water may be easier for most of you to ponder.
- I would also make sure you understand the term co-benefits in the context of lowering CO2 emissions! Here is a one-page article on that topic if you are unsure what the term means. HealthCo-benefits2017
- Review how we do research and collect data in the field of environmental health and the challenges (including confounding effects, different kinds of studies-advantages and disadvantages of each, Hills Criteria).
- Risk perception-what affects our perspectives?
There may also be cumulative questions!
- Review the handouts from previous sections in a general way-especially if the questions touched upon any of the questions above.
- Review themes that have come up repeatedly and review the ways each section of the course relates to or connects to other sections of the course. For example, we talked about food and issues related to environmental justice in each section of the course. We have also talked repeatedly about climate change.
- Do review the pathogens we went over and the different materials in the environment we went over in the context of the questions above.
- Are you comfortable interpreting graphs or figures we examined or those giant tables that have been in many of our papers???
- You might consider how the topics in the last section of the course affect us epigenetically. Remember epigenetic effects are cumulative (and sometimes synergistic!) across a lifetime. In fact, the state of MN is generating a new “Cumulative Impacts” law. Of course, this law does not focus on epigenetics but epigenetics helps us understand the way multiple exposures and stressors impact populations over time. https://www.pca.state.mn.us/get-engaged/cumulative-impacts
- What is the difference between exposed and vulnerable?
- Upstream vs Downstream?
- What do we mean by the term “One Health”?
- Are you comfortable thinking about why a given exposure might disproportionately affect the health of some individuals more than others?