The Politics Of The Climate Change Health Nexus

This book compares how governments in 192 countries perceive climate change related health risks and which measures they undertake to protect their populations. Building on case studies from the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Korea, Japan and Sri Lanka, The Politics of the Climate Change-Health Nexus demonstrates the strong influence of epistemic communities and international organisations on decision making in the field of climate change and health. Jungmann shows that due to the complexity and uncertainty of climate change related health risks, governments depend on the expertise of universities, think tanks, international organisations and researchers within the public sector to understand, strategize and implement effective health adaptation measures. Due to their general openness towards new ideas and academic freedom, the book shows that more democratic states tend to demonstrate a higher recognition of the need to protect their populations. However, the level of success largely depends on the strength of their epistemic communities and the involvement of international organisations. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change and public health. It will also be a valuable resource for policymakers from around the world to learn from best practices and thus improve the health adaptation work in their own countries.

In a compelling scholarly journey, this book unfolds the intricate narratives of human progress and its environmental repercussions catalyzed by the Industrial Revolution. It thoughtfully contrasts the exploitative environmental ideologies stemming from colonization and industrialization against the profound yet often marginalized indigenous ecological philosophies, urging a pivotal shift in environmental stewardship. The narrative meticulously traces the arc of scientific discovery and environmental policy evolution, from Eunice Foote’s groundbreaking hypothesis on the greenhouse effect to the landmark achievements of the Paris Agreement, encapsulating over a century of environmental activism and scholarly debate. The discourse extends beyond traditional environmental concerns, exploring the intersection of climate change with public health, food security, and gender disparities, underscoring the urgency of sustainable agricultural practices and the pivotal role of women in food systems. It introduces the transformative potential of digital health innovations and renewable energy technologies as crucial tools in climate mitigation, highlighting the need for an integrated socio-technical governance model that includes community resilience and biopsychosocial health. The book critically addresses the dynamics of climate finance, advocating for inclusive green growth through strategic renewable energy investments, and revisits the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ to challenge conventional views on communal resource management. It advocates for a justice-oriented approach to tackling the multifaceted environmental, social, and economic challenges, with a particular lens on the adverse impacts borne by marginalized communities in the Global South. Furthermore, it explores the untapped potential of wild genetic resources in bolstering food security. It aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, advocating for integrating Indigenous wisdom into urban development strategies. This book is a call to action, serving as a comprehensive scholarly examination that addresses the multifaceted challenges of climate change, health, and sustainability and champions a collective approach towards forging a sustainable and equitable future.

In this groundbreaking, global analysis of the relationship between climate change and human health, Hans Baer and Merrill Singer inventory and critically analyze the diversity of significant and sometimes devastating health implications of global warming. Using a range of theoretical tools from anthropology, medicine, and environmental sciences, they present ecosyndemics as a new paradigm for understanding the relationship between environmental change and disease. They also go beyond the traditional concept of disease to examine changes in subsistence and settlement patterns, land-use, and lifeways, throwing the sociopolitical and economic dimensions of climate change into stark relief. Revealing the systemic structures of inequality underlying global warming, they also issue a call to action, arguing that fundamental changes in the world system are essential to the mitigation of an array of emerging health crises link to anthropogenic climate and environmental change.

Climate change and social inequity are both sprawling, insidious forces that threaten populations around the world. It's time we start talking about them together. Climate Change and the People's Health offers a brave and ambitious new framework for understanding how our planet's two greatest existential threats comingle, complement, and amplify one another -- and what can be done to mitigate future harm. In doing so it posits three new modes of thinking: - That climate change interacts with the social determinants of health and exacerbates existing health inequities - The idea of a "consumptagenic system" -- a network of policies, processes, governance and modes of understanding that fuel unhealthy, and environmentally destructive production and consumption - The steps necessary to move from denial and inertia toward effective mobilization, including economic, social, and policy interventions With insights from physical science, social science, and humanities, this short book examines how climate change and social inequity are indelibly linked, and considering them together can bring about effective change in social equity, health, and the environment.

The world of development thinkers and practitioners is abuzz with a new lexicon: the idea of "the nexus" between water, food, and energy which is intuitively compelling. It promises better integration of multiple sectoral elements, a better transition to greener economies, and sustainable development. However, there appears to be little agreement on its precise meaning, whether it only complements existing environmental governance approaches or how it can be enhanced in national contexts. One current approach to the nexus treats it as a risk and security matter while another treats it within economic rationality addressing externalities across sector. A third perspective acknowledges it as a fundamentally political process requiring negotiation amongst different actors with distinct perceptions, interests, and practices. This perspective highlights the fact that technical solutions for improving coherence within the nexus may have unintended and negative impacts in other policy areas, such as poverty alleviation and education. The Water–Food–Energy Nexus: Power, Politics and Justice lays out the managerial-technical definitions of the nexus and challenges these conceptions by bringing to the forefront the politics of the nexus, around two key dimensions – a dynamic understanding of water–food–energy systems, and a normative positioning around nexus debates, in particular around social justice. The authors argue that a shift in nexus governance is required towards approaches where limits to control are acknowledged, and more reflexive/plural strategies adopted. This book will be of interest to academic researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the fields of international development studies, environmental politics, and science and technology studies, as well as international relations.

Some aspects of public health vary by locality or jurisdiction. Political challenges are not one of them. As governments on every scale become motivated by short-term economic gains, the essential causes of public health and equity are regularly subject to political questioning and financial shortcutting. Governing for Health is a counterpoint to this myopic approach -- a passionate, rigorous case for why the health of a society is both its greatest measure and its most untapped source of prosperity. Drawing on evidence from economic policy, urban planning, education, environmental policy, and civil action, Fran Baum offers more than a pie-in-sky vision of an equitable society. Governing for Health is an actionable (and inspiring) roadmap to a society that draws prosperity from advancing the health of its people. It utilizes methods of progress-measuring, city planning, and progressive policy foci to advance goals that are unreachable in traditional, economics-driven government practice. Whether for students in health equity, more seasoned public health professionals, or citizens interested in their community's and their own health this book offers a trenchant, richly rewarding and accessible look at the field's ultimate end game -- and with it, hope that it's closer than we think.

In Turning the World Upside Down Nigel Crisp argued that the most affluent and powerful countries in the world can learn a great deal about health from lower income countries with their different insights and experiences and their ability to innovate free from vested interests and received wisdom. In Turning the World Upside Down Again, he argues that they need to go further and listen to and learn from disempowered communities in their own countries. He describes how combining the learning from different countries and communities can lead us to a new ecologically based vision for health and new and practical ways of improving health for ourselves, our communities and our planet. This second edition, 12 years after the first, is extensively re-written and fully updated, drawing on examples from around the world and reflecting what has already been learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and from the onset of climate change. Turning the World Upside Down Again continues the search for understanding begun in the first edition and describes how western scientific medicine, which has served us so well in the 20th Century, must adapt and evolve further and faster to cope with the demands of the 21st Century.

Presents comprehensively the currently un-mapped constellation of issues related to climate change, public health, and the law.