Ecosystem Change and Public Health : A Global Perspective

"The purpose of this textbook on global ecosystem change and human health is twofold:(1) to raise awareness of changes in human health related to global ecosystem change and (2) to expand the scope of the traditional curriculum in environmental health to include the interactions of major environmental forces and public health on a global scale."―from the Introduction

Ecosystem Change and Public Health focuses on how human health is affected by global ecosystem changes. It is the first textbook devoted to this emerging field, offering a global perspective on research methods and emphasizing empirical investigations of health outcomes in combination with integrated assessment for policy development. The book covers such topics as global climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, water resources management, and ecology and infectious disease. Case studies of cholera, malaria, the effects of water resources, and global climate change and air pollution illustrate the analysis and methodology. The book also includes a resource center describing places to start searches on the World Wide Web, guidelines for finding and evaluating information, suggested study projects, and strategies for encouraging communication among course participants.

Joan L. Aron, Ph.D. is president of Science Communication Studies and an associate in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Jonathan A. Patz, M.D., M.P.H. is an assistant professor and director of the Program on Health Effects of Global Environmental Change in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.