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Global Environmental Change and Population Health: Progress and Challenges

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Abstract

Escalating global environmental change (GEC) over the past century has been driven largely by rapid industrialization, population growth, overconsumption of natural resources, and associated waste disposal challenges, as well as the inappropriate uses of technology. These changes are already having and will increasingly continue to have significant impacts on human health and well-being. How to tackle these issues is an important challenge to scientists, policy-makers, and the general public. Scientific consensus now exists that GEC and population health are linked, even though the details and mechanisms underlying this link remain to be both explicated and quantified. In this article we provide an overview of progress and challenges in the area of GEC and population health since the late 1980s, highlighting some of the main landmarks in this area and recommending directions for future research.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Tony McMichael, Dr. Colin Butler, the Editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. Shilu Tong is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Research Fellowship (#290515).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, 4059, Australia

    Shilu Tong

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, 13-103 Clinical Sciences Building, T6G 2G3, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Colin L. Soskolne

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  1. Shilu Tong
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  2. Colin L. Soskolne
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Correspondence to Shilu Tong.

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Tong, S., Soskolne, C.L. Global Environmental Change and Population Health: Progress and Challenges. EcoHealth 4, 352–362 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-007-0125-1

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