Human health has always depended on environmental stability. Today, climate change represents one of the most profound threats to population health in the twenty-first century.

In this chapter, we explore how environmental degradation and climate change shape disease patterns, mortality, displacement, and inequality. Rising temperatures intensify heat-related illness and cardiovascular mortality. Changing rainfall patterns alter vector-borne disease transmission. Extreme weather events disrupt infrastructure, food systems, and healthcare delivery.

Air pollution, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and environmental contamination intersect with climate change to create complex, cascading health risks.

Importantly, environmental harms are not evenly distributed. Vulnerable populations - children, older adults, low-income communities, and those in climate-sensitive regions - bear disproportionate burdens.

The chapter also examines mitigation and adaptation strategies. Transitioning to cleaner energy, improving urban design, strengthening surveillance systems, and enhancing disaster preparedness all represent public health interventions.

Climate change reframes public health at a planetary scale. Protecting population health now requires stewardship of ecological systems.

Key Takeaways

* Climate change increases heat-related morbidity and mortality.

* Environmental shifts influence infectious disease patterns.

* Air pollution is a major global health risk.

* Extreme weather events disrupt health systems and livelihoods.

* Environmental harms disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.

* Mitigation reduces long-term health risks.

* Adaptation strengthens resilience to unavoidable impacts.

* Public health must engage with environmental policy and planning.

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