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

Opinion: How climate action can improve children’s health

Parents who take action to fight climate change can help improve the lives of their children both now and in the future, according to Harvard Chan School’s Aaron Bernstein.

Health consequences of using biomass for energy

Burning biomass has significant public health and environmental justice consequences, according to a recent opinion piece co-authored by Harvard Chan School’s Jonathan Buonocore.

Refocusing ‘home ec’ toward climate solutions

Repurposing high school family and consumer science classes to focus on what families can do at home to lessen climate change could provide students with valuable skills “to save their planet one house and one yard at a…

Rethinking building design for the health of people and the planet

Adele Houghton, DrPH ’23, is creating new tools to help real estate teams become more responsive to the health needs of their buildings’ occupants and the surrounding communities.

Hot days are sending higher percentages of kids to the ER

Children’s visits to emergency rooms in the U.S. rose almost 12% during the warmest months of the year over a three-year period, according to a new study co-authored by Aaron Bernstein. The study, published January 19, 2021 in…

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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