BMJ  2008;336:191-194 (26 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39392.473727.AD

Analysis

Global environmental change and health: impacts, inequalities, and the health sector

¹ National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, ² Centre for Environmental Resources and Hazards Research, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Jos, Nigeria, ³ Public Health and Environment, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Human pressures on the environment are damaging the world’s biophysical and ecological systems. A J McMichael and colleagues discuss the resulting unequal effects on health and set out strategies to help prevent and lessen the harm

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Human actions are changing many of the world’s natural environmental systems, including the climate system. These systems are intrinsic to life processes and fundamental to human health, and their disruption and depletion make it more difficult to tackle health inequalities. Indeed, we will not achieve the UN millennium development health goals if environmental destruction continues.¹ Health professionals have a vital contributory role in preventing and reducing the health effects of global environmental change.

In 2000 the United Nations set out eight development goals to improve the lives of the world’s disadvantaged populations. The goals seek reductions in poverty, illiteracy, sex inequality, malnutrition, child deaths, maternal mortality, and major infections as well creation of environmental stability and a global partnership for development.² One problem of this itemisation of goals is that it separates environmental considerations from health considerations. Poverty cannot be eliminated while environmental degradation exacerbates malnutrition, disease, and injury. Food . . . [Full text of this article]

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