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Mother/Earth Under the Microscope (2023)

September 14, 2023, January 17, 2024, and May 7, 2024

Climate change is a significant threat to global health due to heat exposure, poor air and water quality, food security, vector-borne diseases, and extreme weather events. Women, pregnant women, children, and the elderly are particularly vulnerable due to socioeconomic, cultural, and physiologic factors, threatening to widen gender-based health disparities. The research and medical communities need to recognize climate change as a threat to patient health and address it as a public health, social justice, human rights, political, and gender issue. This presentation focused on the effects of climate change on women's health and reframe the role of healthcare providers and researchers in addressing both climate change and its disparities.

Nutrition is a fundamental human right and should be prioritized in young children and women of childbearing age. In this lecture, Salibatu Mansaray explored the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition, the role of food insecurity and poverty, prevention methods, and the overall impacts of nutrition on maternal-child health around the world.

Climate change often appeared to be a global collective "we" problem. However, Christopher "Todd" Beer, PhD, emphasized that not everyone held the same responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, experienced the same impacts of rising temperatures, or responded to the crisis in the same way. In his talk, he explored the foundations of climate justice—both globally and domestically—as a lens to understand the current causes and consequences of climate change for women and health. He encouraged attendees to carry this perspective forward when examining climate crises throughout their lives and careers. Additionally, he introduced two frameworks that examined gendered responses which hindered the speed and magnitude of the necessary transition away from fossil fuels.

Speakers