Environmental Challenges & Global Health

This subject is not offered in 2014.

120 Hours

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For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.
The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website.

Improving global health in the long term requires a deep appreciation of the impact of environmental issues at local, national and global scales. Three key public health threats that require complex multidisciplinary solutions are climate change, water security, and nuclear weapons. Students of this subject will explore these interrelated planetary challenges, their profound implications for population health, and the demand for high level integrated problem solving in the coming decades.

On the completion of this subject students should be able to:

• Critically assess the scientific principles and evidence of climate change impacts on health
• Articulate the importance of water to health at local national and global levels
• Analyse the health evidence and issues around nuclear energy, weapons and medical nuclear materials
• Synthesize the inter-relationships between climate change, water security and nuclear energy, and the implications for health

Oral group presentation (4-5 students per group) of 20 minutes due on the last teaching day (20%); critical analysis of 1000 words of a key article due 2 weeks after the last teaching day (20%); and an essay of 3,000 words due six weeks after the last teaching day (60%)

Students will be issued key readings for this subject.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Upon completion of this subject, students will have developed skills in:

• Critical thinking and analysis,
• Finding, evaluation and using relevant information,
• Problem-solving,
• Written communication.