요약

This Update issue was first conceived by IHDP’s health advisory group at the IHDP Open Meeting in 2009. Since then, questions about the links between global change, health and the environment have become more critical to human well-being. For example, extreme events in different parts of the world (e.g. H1N1A), made the global community aware of how rapidly emergent diseases can be widely transmitted virtually anywhere. While the natural science and medical communities have had a head start in drawing together the connections between health and the environment, it has become increasingly apparent that the IHDP community has a key role to play in addressing health as a cross-cutting issue. As a starting point, we invited a group of renowned scientists to contribute their thoughts and work on three themes: Firstly concerning areas of research where IHDP’s community could contribute at the conceptual level; secondly, on examples of research already taking place in various regions; and thirdly, to suggest emerging topics which need to be addressed.