Front Line Research The Wildlife Trust administers CCM, which conducts collaborative scientific research on emerging infectious diseases, pathogen pollution, climate change, the health of marine systems and problems affecting endangered species. CCM works with veterinary and medical students, promotes conservation medicine at workshops and conferences, and informs policymakers through Congressional briefings and other forums. CCM […]
Peter Daszak: "We’ve gotten to the stage now where we know enough about conservation on one side, and about how infectious diseases work on the other, to really start to mix the two together."
Mary Pearl discusses how healthy ecosystems are the basis for human wellbeing, and how conservation medicine can engage people who didn’t see the relevance before.
Heat stress is probably the most obvious thing people think of when the idea of global warming comes up. A heat wave in Europe during the summer of 2003 killed more than 10,000 people in France alone. Many of the dead were elderly; the group most likely to live alone and most susceptible to heat-related health problems.
Expectant mothers are notorious worriers. As the nesting instinct kicks in, they will lower their bellies down to the floor to scrub every corner with a toothbrush. In some cases, it makes them ban all solvents, bleached paper products and imported grapes from the premises. Considering all of the health threats children face today, clearing away environmental hazards should be a parental priority.
If you’re all grown up and still wince at the thought of eating dark leafy greens, it may be because you haven’t found the right ones, or the right preparation. There are enough different greens and enough ways to prepare them that they can find a place in any menu, from protein-loving to low-fat to raw to, of course, vegetarian or vegan. Greens are too delicious to miss, and their health benefits too great to overlook.
It’s called "conservation medicine," but perhaps a better name would be "conservation health." The science is complex, but most people would find the theory intuitive: Human health is fragile, and dependent upon the larger world around it. Yes, it is about AIDS, SARS, mad cow, West Nile, malaria and monkeypox, but it is also about the interconnectedness of all life and the fact that human behavior has consequences.
For years the killer stalked Detroit and its suburbs undetected. Now it has unleashed an epidemic that will kill millions. The killer is an insect, the emerald ash borer, and the victims are ash trees. "The emerald ash borer is one of the most challenging and difficult plant pests that any state has ever had to deal with," says Sara Linsmeier-Wurfel of the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
Belize’s government is dead-set on building a dam on the upper Macal River, smack in the heart of the Cayo region, a central tourist draw. The $30 million Chalillo dam will flood 2,800 acres of tropical forest that is home to jaguars, ocelots, tapirs and the country’s only known flock of the rare and colorful scarlet macaw.
In a story that got little play outside the capital city of Hartford last July, Anne Rapkin, a former chief legal counsel for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), quietly settled a discrimination lawsuit against the state. Environmental shenanigans are nothing new in Connecticut.
