Project Overview

Introduction

In this project, we outline a process for bringing together members of the International Council for Science (ICSU) to develop a global research agenda to examine the links between health and the environment. The project is being led by the International Geographical Union (IGU) through its commission on Health, Environment and Development (HED), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) and the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) with financial support from ICSU, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

This represents a unique initiative to develop an agenda for research which incorporates the latest concepts and methodologies from a range of disciplines and sub-disciplines whose researchers are already at the forefront of research on health and the environment.  It may be expected that other ICSU bodies may wish to collaborate in the actual implementation of this proposal and every effort will be made to encourage other relevant ICSU partners to do so.  The initiative will take into account recent ICSU initiatives related to health and also seek to involve relevant non-ICSU bodies working in this area.

 

Overview

There is a long history of anthropogenic changes to the environment posing problems for human welfare and health.  However, in the past, most of the impacts have been local or regional in scale.  Problems such as water and air pollution remain important causes of concern affecting millions of people.   What is new is that there is now accumulating evidence that human actions are changing the environment on a global scale in ways that could cause widespread impacts on human health.

Concerns about the impacts of climate change, stratospheric ozone and the loss of biodiversity are now adding to the problems posed by more localised issues.  Furthermore, the anticipated changes in physical and biological systems are likely to interact strongly with socio-economic factors such that the worst effects will be suffered by the most vulnerable populations in developing countries' economies in transition.

Understanding and managing the interactions among environmental change, development and population health is, therefore, a key scientific challenge that will require cooperation between different disciplines.

To develop research in this complex, multidisciplinary arena, a global agenda is required which will identify critical issues and how researchers from varied backgrounds can work together to tackle issues where the impacts are increasing in number, intensity and global reach. 

The issues are of such a magnitude that international cooperation among social, physical and life scientists will be required.  The agenda, in the form of a final report, which is the ultimate outcome of this research process, will act as an instrument for facilitating the international and multidisciplinary cooperation required.  Beyond the agenda, the position papers and the workshop reports will represent state-of-the-art syntheses and starting points for new research initiatives. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a unique process is proposed which will provide outstanding training and collaborative experiences by bringing together senior scientists, young scientists, women scientists, scientists from transitional economies and from developing countries.

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