How the Environment Affects Your Health
Videos
Grades7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, APBiology, Geography, Health
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by Crash Course
What it is
- This video describes how environmental pollution and climate change impact human health, especially for marginalized and low-income populations in Illinois.
- Chicago is used as an example to demonstrate that people who live in certain neighborhoods have worse health outcomes due to a lack of infrastructure and community resources.
- Environmental justice is identified as a way to create an environment that is healthy for everyone.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The video uses maps, animations, and real-world data to explain key ideas.
- The video focuses on the populations most affected by climate injustice like the disabled, elderly, BIPOC, and low-income communities.
Additional Prerequisites
- The video is divided into eight sections that can be played individually to complement a variety of lessons.
- The content of the video ends at 13 minutes, 45 seconds. The remaining portion is credits.
Differentiation
- Students can research how their community's health is impacted by climate change and identify potential health hazards like busy roads, fossil fuel plants, industrial operations, and poor infrastructure.
- Challenge students in civics classes to create a proposal for how their local government can better address the health needs of marginalized groups due to climate change.
- To learn more about how pollution impacts health, students can check out this Khan Academy video, this article by the American Lung Association, or this video by the Climate Reality Project.
- Additional resources about climate change and public health include this video and this ebook.
From the scientist review
Low-income people and marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by climate-related illness caused by extreme heat, pollution, etc. Yet, they do not have the needed support from the government to address major environmental health issues confronting them. The resource highlights the impact of heatwaves, pollution, and environmental degradation on human and environmental health. On that account, it is suitable and recommended for teaching.
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