Source: https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2024-05-02-the-climate-crisis-is-a-public-health-crisis

On 23 April 2024, as part of a series of events to mark Green Week, the Green Campus Initiative (GCI) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) participated in a Climate Change and Health Seminar on the campus of the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS). The seminar was hosted by James Irlam, a senior lecturer in the Primary Health Care Directorate.

“The climate crisis is a public health crisis,” said Malaika Delport of the GCI at the seminar, which started with a presentation by Dr Natasha Lalloo. Lauren Pinder and Aya Yokwe, two UCT students who participated in the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC), also made a presentation.

Dr Lalloo, a medical doctor who graduated from UCT in 2015 and who also holds a Master of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, spoke on the topic of “Planetary Health for Medical Doctors in South Africa”. She reflected on how climate change exacerbates existing health concerns and inequities. “Our health depends directly on our environment,” said Lalloo. “As we humans change the environment, these kinds of changes impact our health.”