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Green earth ;

Tackling the climate crisis to safeguard human health

Daniel Koch

Gautel Lab

03 November 2021

A Randall special series in response to COP26 - Part 1

Without a doubt the climate crisis is the biggest challenge humanity is facing. According to current projections, our planet is predicted to heat up by 2.7 degrees or more by the end of the century. It is no isolated problem “among others”, but amplifies almost any other crisis we are facing, whether economic, political or otherwise. Currently, world leaders at the COP26 climate conference are debating and deciding on the condition of the world we and our children have to live in over the next decades and centuries, with profound implications for human wellbeing and health.

At the Randall Centre we are passionate about answering fundamental biological questions with an aim to translate our findings into applications that improve human health. Our research focus spans allergy and asthma, cardiovascular diseases and cancer biology. The climate crisis and our response to it has profound implications for all of these issues – and thus on the impact biomedical science can have on these issues.

Over the next few days we will explore some of these impacts, the links between the biomedical sciences and the climate crisis and how this affects our research. We will discuss what we can do about the crisis and indicate how these solutions are beneficial for both climate and human health.

In the meantime we’d like to guide you to some starters from other departments at King’s:

Events and activities relating to COP26 at King’s

Podcasts

  • Together with the Australian National University, our colleagues Dr Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli, Dr Megan Bowman, Dr Tamsin Edwards, Professor Kerry Brown, Dr Emily Barritt and Dr Paul Fisher have produced four excellent COP26: we got this podcast episodes covering among other things: What the COP process is, how to talk about the climate crisis, why we haven’t done more yet and what role non-state actors such as local communities can play to tackle the climate crisis. Find the podcast here.
  • The WORLD: we got this podcast explores why we aren’t doing more to tackle climate change and what society, governments and individuals can do to turn current inaction into action. This is a highly interesting episode featuring Dr Kris de Meyer, Dr James Porter and Dr Anshu Ogra. Find the podcast here.
  • Are women climate scientists judged for speaking out about climate change? Listen to this episode by Lauren Armstrong and Dr George Adamson. Find the podcast here.

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