Global Health Governance
Special Issue: Climate Change and Global Health Security
Guest Editor
Robert L. Ostergard, Jr.
Publication Goal May 2020
On November 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson accepted a report from the President’s Science Advisory Committee on Pollution, of Air, Soil and Waters. The committee had set off alarms with regard to what would later be known as climate change. In its report, the committee highlighted what we now understand as one of the base problems associated with climate change. Millions of dollars and years of research since have given us a clearer picture of the problem, though research has not clarified the precise impact of climate change to human and ecological systems.
The health security impact of climate change will be determined not necessarily by the natural systems that generate exposure to risk, but rather by the ability of social and political systems to respond rapidly enough to minimize climate-related health impacts as well as react to new risks. While significant work has been done examining the social vulnerability of populations to climate changes, perhaps a better conceptualization of the problem is to examine the vulnerability of the various political and policy systems and conditions to be able to respond adequately.
This issue of Global Health Governance seeks to explore a number of important questions about the relationship between climate change and global health security. Some of these topics may include, but are not limited to:
- International and Domestic institutional issues in addressing climate change and health security
- Impact of climate change on health security related problems and issues, such as increased disease burdens, issues related to health and food security and agricultural production, health security related to climate-induced migration issues and problems, and other related issues induced or exacerbated by changing climate conditions
- Climate change’s current and potential effects on domestic and global health inequalities
- Problems related to climate change and global health governance
Research, reviews, opinion, and commentary are welcome from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds including risk analysis, climate sciences, public health, the social and behavioral sciences, political science and international relations, civil society organizations, and government agencies.
Questions regarding this special issue can be sent to the guest editor (orobert@unr.edu).