7. Planetary Health - Jennifer Cole

Today we will talk about Earth - the key elements of nature that support all life.  Tucked away in an obscure corner of the milky way, this blue planet is home to us all and the only known planet that supports organic life. Throughout its course of evolution, the planet has undergone radical transformations – from a hot fiery ball of fire to a frigid snowball earth that remained frozen for 300 million years.  As the earth warmed, life flourished on the planet in exuberant profusion. After maintaining a relatively stable atmosphere for the last 11,000 years, global temperatures are beginning to rise again. Many believe that this runaway global warming is to due to human activity, which has increased the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases.  Few people know more about how this climate change is affecting or will continue to affect the health of the planet and its inhabitants, or that there is deep bond between human health and the health of the planet than our guest today – Dr. Jennifer Cole. 

Dr. Cole is a biological anthropologist interested in how humans influence and adapt to changing environments.  She is a lecturer in Global and Planetary Health at Royal Holloway University of London.  From 2017-2019, she was Public Health Policy Advisor to the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at Oxford University and co-authored the influential book – Planetary Health: Human Health in the Era of Global Environmental Change.