The health impacts of climate change will differ significantly from country to country. Increased heatwaves may lead to more deaths in summer. Changes in rainfall and temperature may lead to changes in the distribution of vector borne diseases (e.g. malaria or Lyme disease).  Increased temperatures may lead to behaviours that cause certain diseases to increase in prevalence (e.g. skin cancer from more sunbathing on the beaches of Cornwall).  Animal health may also be impacted – with companion animals and farm animals being affected by increased heat and spread of diseases amongst farm animals.  

In your enquiry group, you might choose one of these topics to look into. Can you think of novel ways for adaptation? How can we get the messages about climate change and the planetary health risks across to various publics and stakeholders?

The loss of biodiversity is seen as one of the three largest threats facing our planet (the others being climate change and pollution). Biodiversity is important for the survival of our planet and indeed human race. In this enquiry area you will look at ways to prevent biodiversity loss or to communicate messages about this crucial issue. You might choose a particular species to examine – or look at the impact on society of biodiversity loss overall.  You could look at the ethics of managing biodiversity or ways to protect ecosystems and sustain food chains. You might consider evaluating the benefits and costs of biodiversity – considering the health impacts, the potential for novel drug discoveries and for nature based tourism.

There is increasing awareness of the importance of mental health and the burden that poor mental health and wellbeing places on society. From extreme events to climate change uncertainty, the mental health of different populations is being impacted. Inequalities exist – both in the impacts of climate change on mental health and wellbeing and in the provision of health services and access to them. Sprawling cities and increasing high density urbanisation have resulted in exposure to potentially harmful affluence, lack of clean air and reduced access to blue and green environments. Climate induced migration may lead to stresses on migrant families.  How can we tackle this problem? In your enquiry groups you can look at one of the areas of particular concern and think about interventions that might be useful in reducing the mental health and wellbeing burden of climate change.

We don’t yet know precisely when and where SARS-CoV-2 virus first jumped the species barrier into a human host. But we know, at some stage, it acquired ability for rapid onward human to human transmission and triggered the COVID-19 pandemic. Viruses and other pathogens frequently jump between species, but most cannot easily spread within the new host species and don’t cause pandemics. Avian flu, Ebola, SARS, MERS and HIV/AIDS are other viruses that have successfully made the jump in recent decades. And examples of new zoonotic diseases (human diseases caused by pathogens that have originated in animals) are becoming more frequent. What do you think are the reasons for this? Are there things humans can do to decrease the likelihood of future pandemics? Can we decrease the chances of new viruses making the jump? Can we stop outbreaks from becoming epidemics? How can we better protect global societies from the ravages of pandemics? What kind of media campaign would be effective in promoting public acceptance of your solutions?