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: Changing how buildings use energy can help combat climate change

Shifting buildings away from using dirty fossil fuels and toward using electricity for heating and cooling will be a crucial part of combatting climate change. But decarbonizing buildings would require a whopping increase in demand for renewable energy…

The case for climate optimism

Amid the gloom and doom that typically shape news and discussions about climate change, a growing number of thought leaders are focusing instead on the positive efforts that are underway in the fight against global warming.

Historic climate legislation an ‘extraordinary step forward’

Congress’ recently passed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes about $400 billion to address climate and clean energy over the next decade, which is expected to help significantly reduce U.S. fossil fuel emissions and reduce health harms.

Extreme heat toolkit for providers, patients, clinics

A new extreme heat toolkit aims to provide information for healthcare providers, patients, and clinics on how to handle the serious health impacts of high temperatures.

Building healthier, more resilient societies to tackle global threats

The Reform for Resilience Commission has a lofty goal—to help ensure healthier and resilient growth everywhere amid dire global threats such as COVID-19 and climate change.

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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