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.

April 15 – Confronting the Climate Crisis: Choosing a Healthier Future

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and prepare for the next 50 years, please join the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for a half-day symposium addressing the serious public health effects of the climate crisis and featuring leaders who are driving the movement for a healthier world.

Recent Stories

Climate in the clinic

Physicians, health leaders discuss how to address the health impacts of climate change February 19, 2020 – Climate change—and how it affects health—should be front and center for doctors, health care workers, and hospitals. That was the key message at a February…

Climate change can harm both health and health systems

The warming planet could worsen health for patients with chronic conditions, lead to new health harms, and wreak havoc with health systems, according to an expert from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Renee Salas—an emergency room doctor, a Yerby Fellow at the…

Q&A: In Madagascar, climate change means public health peril

Since 2004, Christopher Golden has been filling in the links between climate change and health among Madagascar's Malagasy people, in hopes of refining both scientific understanding and on-the-ground interventions.

Gina McCarthy fighting climate change at NRDC

Despite increasingly dire reports about climate change—rising global temperatures, melting ice sheets, wildfires, intense storms—Gina McCarthy says she intends to keep fighting against it. A January 13, 2020, Boston Globe column profiled McCarthy, professor of the practice of public health at Harvard…

‘The planet has a fever’

The last decade was the hottest ever, and 2019 was the second-hottest year ever, according to a report from two federal agencies. The annual global climate report from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used data from thousands of…