Environment & Health Seminar: A Healthy Response To Climate Change

Abstract: Planetary Health was defined in 2015 in the Lancet as “the health of human civilization and the natural systems upon which it depends.”  Now a growing field fueled by concerns around increasing wildfires, heat events, trends in food production, and changes in infectious disease patterns due to our changing climate and biosphere, health actors are learning how to incorporate feedback loops between people and planet into their work and community life.  This session will investigate major climate-related impacts of climate change on health and health systems in Canada, connect them to broader trends globally, and consider how the combination of evidence-based policy targets and change-making centered around globally-shared narratives can accelerate global work for a healthy climate.

Brief Bio: Dr Courtney Howard is an Emergency Physician in Canada’s subarctic, and board President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE). She was the first author on the 2017, 2018, and 2019 Lancet Countdownon Health and Climate Change Briefings for Canadian Policymakers as well as being the 2018 International Policy Director for the Lancet Countdown. She is now the climate policy director for CODAChange, a new distributed global health advocacy initiative by the originators of SMACC (Social Media and Critical Care). Dr Howard has led research into menstrual cups and wildfires, and participated in policy work and advocacy regarding active transport, plant-rich diets, health impact assessments, fossil fuel divestment, carbon pricing, coal phase-out, and hydraulic fracturing. She sits on the boards of the Canadian Medical Association, Health in Harmony, and the Global Climate and Health Alliance, is the co-chair of the advocacy subcommittee of the WHO-Civil Society Working Group on Climate Change and Health, is on the Planetary Health Alliance’s steering committee and has recently joined the editorial advisory board for the LancetPlanetary Health. She is most inspired by her two young daughters and can frequently be found dancing with them in a little house in Yellowknife.