Climate Change and Health
Given the increasing climatic changes worldwide, climate change adaptation and climate mitigation are of utmost priority to protect global human health. Like other regions, Germany is increasingly experiencing the consequences of climate change in the form of heat waves, prolonged droughts and extreme weather events like heavy rainfall and storms, resulting in a wide range of direct and indirect health threats. Heat-related mortality, especially among the elderly, is rising; invasive disease-carrying mosquito species are becoming more widespread; the vegetation period is extended and with it the health burden posed by pollen and other allergenes; the risk of physical and psychological trauma as a result of extreme weather events is increasing. Clearly, these statistics highlight the urgent need of raising awareness and health literacy among the public but also health care professionals to effectively respond to the challenges of a climatically changing world.
Let's Talk Climate!
Let's Talk Climate! aims to develop a set of Open Educational Resources (OER) for both individual and peer learning in health professions education (e.g., health sciences, public health, nursing, midwifery) using interactive and scenario-based materials. It further aims to design materials in such a way that can be applied in daily public health practice, e.g. for activities of risk communication or public health promotion, with both being identified in discourse with students but also practitioners of medicine and health sciences. Due to the need for diverse and cross-disciplinary adoption, all materials shall be published under an open license (Creative Commons Licence) and will compile different sets of online and offline resources to enable flexible adaptation, recycling, utilization and transfer into practice.
Hamburg Open Online University
Let's Talk Climate! is an initiative of the Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU) at HAW Hamburg. The HOOU fosters the development of innovative digital learning tools and provision of Open Educational Resources (OER) on its platform.
