GEOGRAPHY 480
Environmental Geography, Climate, and Health
Spring, 2004
Mary Gates Hall 271
Dr. Jonathan D. Mayer
Professor, Departments of Geography, Medicine
(Allergy and Infectious Disease), Family Medicine
and Health Services
Tel: (206) 543-7110
Email: jmayer@u.washington.edu
Course listproc: geog480a_sp04@u.washington.edu (remember that
anything posted here goes to the whole class)
Room 412-C Smith Hall
Office hours: Tues 3:30-4:30 and Thurs 3-4:30
Course Rationale:
People, societies, and the environment are inextricably
linked in both obvious and more obscure ways. At one time, some geographers
argued that the physical and biological environments determined the characteristics of people and cultures. This
“environmental determinism” is a concept that has been discarded, and one that
caused the demise of some major geography departments. Nonetheless, the
environment obviously influences people and cultures. In turn, people and
groups modify the environment through agriculture, water projects,
urbanization, and other phenomena. Thus, the consensus in the social sciences
generally and in geography specifically is that the human-environment linkages are
myriad, complex, and frequently hidden. At a time when there are tremendous
geographical inequalities in health status, life expectancy, and patterns of
mortality, the relations between the environment and health are of paramount
importance. It is from this realization that this course is offered.
Course goal:
The main goal of this course is to demonstrate and investigate the many ways of appreciating how human-environment relations are expressed in the context of health and disease. The focus will be both local and global. This course draws attention to the relationships between geography generally and medical geography specifically on the one hand, and environmental studies, social analysis, and other biological, physical, and social sciences generally. Thus, medical geography is at the intersection of the social. physical, and biological sciences. We must realize that individual health should be seen in the context of public health, and that public health should be seen in the broader contexts of social, physical, and biological phenomena, in their complex and frequently hidden and unanticipated interactions
My educational
beliefs:
Students are inherently curious and seek to understand the
world surrounding them and the world in which they live. This course, and my
teaching, is both aimed at encouraging the critical analysis of the
human-health-environment relationships. This understanding and analysis must
come from a solid knowledge of the factual, scientific, and conceptual bases
from which such understanding and thinking must come. Some students will find
that this course will contribute directly to their professional development,
while others will find that it provides a basis for understanding issues of
health and disease as citizens in a democratic society, in which we can all
help to determine the course of society. My own role in this course will be
multifaceted. Sometimes I will serve as an authority on the subjects that we
will cover. At other times, I will be a facilitator of inquiry and debate. I
hope that I will always be a resource for your own interests and investigations
as we proceed through the course.
Reading:
Joan L. Aron and Jonathan A. Patz,
eds. Ecosystem Change and Public Health: A Global Perspective. Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Hereafter referred to as “Aron and
Patz.”
National Research Council. Under
the Weather: Climate, Ecosystems, and Infectious Disease. Washington:
National Academy Press, 2001. Hereafter referred to as “Under the Weather.” Available
on-line for free at:
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309072786/html/index.html
Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
Eric Klinenberg, Heatwave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in
Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Devra Davis, When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental
Deception and the Battle Against Pollution. New York: Basic Books,
2002.
Week 1 (March 29)
Sustainability and Health
Articles available on ereserve at https://eres.lib.washington.edu/coursepage.asp?cid=2822
Lubchenko J. Entering the century of the environment: a new social
contract for science. Science 1998;279:491-497.
Kates RW, Parris TM. Long term trends and a sustainability transition. PNAS 2003;100:8062-7.
McMichael AJ et al. New visions for addressing sustainability. Science 2003;302:1919-20.
McMichael AJ et al. Globalization and the sustainability of human health: an ecological perspective. Bioscience 1999;49:205-10.
Kates, RW et al. Sustainability science. Science 2001;641:241-2.
Aron and Patz, ch. 1, “Information on Sources of Global Change;” pp. 3-16; ch. 2 “Epidemiological Study Designs,” pp. 17-59.
Week 2 (April 4) Health in an
Ecological Framework
Aron and Patz, “Information on Issues of Global Change,” pp. 3-16;” ch. 6 “Human Populations in the Shared Environment,” pp. 156-187; ch. 8 “An Earth Science Perspective on Global Change,” pp. 233-50, :ch. 10 “Ecology and Infectious Disease,” pp. 283-324.
Week 3 (April 11)
Water Resources and Health
Aron and Patz, “Water Resources Management,” pp. 251-280; ch. 14, “Too Little, Too Much: How the Quantity of Water Affects Human Health,” pp. 409-426.
Week 4 (April 18)
Case Studies in Environmental Change
and Health
Aron and Patz, ch. 11 “Cholera and Global Ecosystems.” Pp. 327-328; ch 12, “Malaria and Global Ecosystem Change,” pp. 353-378.
Week 5 (April 25)
Global Climate, Climate Change, and
Health
Aaron and Patz, ch. 7 “The Changing Chemistry of the Earth’s
Atmosphere,” pp. 188-232; ch 13, “Global Climate Change and Air Pollution:
Interatction and their Effects on Human Health,” pp. 379-408; National Research
Council, Under the Weather, entire book.
Week 6-7 (May 2,9)
Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago.
Week 8 (May 16)
Moving to the Local: Disease
Clusters and Civil Action
Harr, Civil Action.
Week 9-10 (May 23):
Davis, When Smoke Ran Like Water.