Confronting Climate Change

The future of humanity is sustainable

It’s the air you breathe, the water you drink, the food you eat. It’s also the rising risk of epidemics and natural disasters that devastate communities and trigger social upheaval. Climate change harms us all, but we can turn the tide.

We are working to protect communities around the corner and around the globe—uncovering the human consequences of pollution policies, the nuances of our changing environment, and the solutions that are possible when we work together. We’re revealing new insights and making new connections. And we’re helping people survive and thrive in a changing world.

We’re on the front lines of the fight to sustain humankind.

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Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE)
C-CHANGE produces science for a healthy, just, and sustainable world. Researchers at the Center will harness the best available science and support innovative research to develop strategies that benefit public health today while providing opportunities to stabilize our climate.
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Recent Stories

On Earth Day, Harvard Chan experts talk climate and health

The impact of climate change on health is far-reaching, according to experts from Harvard Chan School. It can lead to higher levels of air pollution, more extreme weather events, the spread of infectious diseases, and greater risk of…

Earth Week 2021

A host of events are planned for Earth Week 2021, including a talk by the lead negotiator for the Paris Climate Agreement, Christiana Figueres.

We’re better off when we stop pandemics before they start

When Aaron (Ari) Bernstein met his first pediatric patient infected with COVID-19, he realized that this little girl's health was connected to an infected bat on the other side of the world. Climate change and deforestation have made…

Texas storm offers glimpse of how climate change threatens public health

February 23, 2021 – An extreme winter storm followed by freezing temperatures, prolonged power outages, and water shortages has threatened the health of millions of Texans. Renee Salas, a Yerby Fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and…

Pollen seasons are getting longer, driven by climate change

Since 1990, pollen seasons have gotten longer and more pollen-filled, and climate change is responsible, according to a new study.

Drew Michanowicz
Research Fellow in the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment

"Climate change should be public health enemy number one. The irony is, if we don’t slow the rate of climate change, we may no longer get the luxury of imagining future public health achievements."
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Ramon Sanchez
Research Associate in the Department of Environmental Health

"My particular interest is using microorganisms to transform wastewater into fuel. Imagine that every city will be its own refinery, because it will transform the nutrients that we process in our bodies into fuel. That will reduce not only carbon intensity but also toxic emissions."
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Piers MacNaughton
Associate Director of the Healthy Buildings Program; Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment

"Right now, 7 million people die each year from air pollution. I think that number will go down to zero by 2050, once the grid is completely fossil-fuel-free, transportation is decarbonized, and indoor sources of air pollution are removed."
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