History of Environmental Issues for an Area
In this assignment, you will select one region of the world with known environmental issues and create a timeline of the events in this area, going back no more than 200 years. For example, you could choose to focus on the Gulf Coast in the United States and its history of hurricanes, floods, and the recent oil spill; the Love Canal disaster in New York; the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine; or Canada's tar-sands in Alberta. Each of these areas has a history of environmental problems that have impacted populations, and their health, drastically.
To help identify a region with known environmental events for this assignment, consult your textbook, the WHO Public Health and Environment Program's Web site, and the UNEP's Web site. Please be sure to support your public health analysis of these environmental issues with evidence-based research.
Using this timeline of events, create a presentation analyzing the environmental issues in this region, including the following topics/issues:
- History-A brief timeline: Describe the environmental history for the area(s)/region(s) impacted, including the environmental disasters that have taken place and their immediate- and long-term impacts on the population's health in this region. Wherever appropriate, include a description of the population(s) in the region, along with demographics and population sizes. This should take approximately 4-5 slides.
- The factors that caused these disasters and public health outcomes in this area. Be sure to list all known causative factors at play and whether they are caused by humans and/or are natural. This should take approximately 2-3 slides.
- An analysis of how these events have impacted or will impact the health and/or disease risk of this region of the world. Be sure to address other determinants of health-social, economic, cultural, and other environmental factors-in your analysis that influence or will influence the magnitude of environmental events on health outcomes in this region. Examine whether you are focusing on a region with primarily developed or developing countries and explain how this influences current and future health outcomes. This should take approximately 4-5 slides.
- A summary of past, current, and proposed efforts that aim to help combat the effects of these environmental issues/threats on health (local and/or global), including emergency response planning and prevention efforts. This should take approximately 3-4 slides.
- Three recommendations for strategies to protect populations in this region from poor health outcomes due to these environmental issues. Be sure that your three recommendations are supported with evidence-based research. These could include long-term policies, emergency response plans, or public health programs that would protect public health in the region. This should take approximately 3-4 slides.