Global environmental change and health: impacts, inequalities, and the health sector

Abstract

Human actions are changing many of the world’s natural environmental systems, including the climate system. These systems are intrinsic to life processes and fundamental to human health, and their disruption and depletion make it more difficult to tackle health inequalities. Indeed, we will not achieve the UN millennium development health goals if environmental destruction continues.1 Health professionals have a vital contributory role in preventing and reducing the health effects of global environmental change.