Key Information
About the content
Explore the direct and indirect ways that climate change affects health
This online course gives you the opportunity to explore the impact of climate change on public health. It shares knowledge of both the direct and indirect ways in which climate change is affecting health around the globe.
It starts by examining current trends in climate change and the methods used to evaluate the continuously emerging data in this field. You will find out how to leverage the data that is publicly available, to campaign for changes to behaviours or policies, at both a local and regional level.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...
- Recognise the relationship between climate change and health and the associated themes and trends.
- Understand the nature of complex problems resulting from interconnected social, political, and climate change issues, and the associated challenges.
- Articulate key public health concepts related to climate change and describe how they are likely to exacerbate existing problems of social and health inequality.
- Analyse the continuously emerging and publically available data for climate/health using applicable methods and tools for examining big data.
- Evaluate the impact of implementing a specific action (locally, regionally, nationally, internationally) on a specific health indicator.
- Identify your own role as a climate change campaigner and the ways to overcome personal, social, political or organisational barriers to change.
- Create an action plan to effect change further to insight (e.g. from data and collaboration)
Prerequisite
This course is suitable for anyone interested in climate change or health, particularly those working in public or private healthcare organisations or academic research in this area.
Syllabus
What topics will you cover?
- What are the climate change themes and trends in relation to public health and is there anything we can do to improve things?
- Who are the key contributors to climate change, what are they doing and how are their harmful activities being countered?
- How can we prove that the impact on health is linked to climate change?
- How to implement an action plan to improve health outcomes impacted by climate change
Instructors
Edward Meinert
I am a chartered engineer and my research interests are centred on software engineering, digital health and applying public health to global challenges.
Kris Murray
I am an ecologist with interests in global change, conservation and health. I work on problems where these key themes are interconnected.
Content Designer

Platform

FutureLearn is a massive open online course (MOOC) learning platform founded in December 2012.
It is a company launched and wholly owned by The Open University in Milton Keynes, England. It is the first UK-led massive open online course learning platform, and as of March 2015 included 54 UK and international University partners and unlike similar platforms includes four non-university partners: the British Museum, the British Council, the British Library and the National Film and Television School.