Learning for Planetary Health:

Early Lessons from a Pandemic

Wednesday, April 15th, 2020 from

12:30-2:00pm Pacific Daylight Time

As we face one of the greatest challenges for public health in several generations with the COVID-19 pandemic, we also have an unprecedented opportunity as governments and citizens prepare for a post-COVID future that we hope will not be simply restoring everything to the way it was.  The pandemic has been described as climate change at warp speed. But the response to this “greatest challenge” has been quite different. Since this is such a ripe opportunity for learning, we (several eco-health colleagues and others) are organizing a couple webinars with perhaps more if there’s demand. We will begin by exploring the origins of the outbreak with lessons from the animal-human interface. We will then learn from previous economic collapses and what these lessons teach us about the coming weeks and months as we emerge from the current wave of disease and economic devastation to become a healthier planet than we were before the current pandemic. We will explore the relationships and resources needed for a recovery that makes us stronger and better able to face the challenges to planetary health that are even more critical than the COVID-19 pandemic, but that appear less imminent to society. Our primary goal is to articulate a shared vision of this future where society bounces back but bounces back to a better place than our pre-pandemic world.

Moderator: Chris Buse, Centre for Environmental Assessment Research, UBC

Our contributors will be:

• Mira Ziolo, Consulting Veterinarian at Wildlife Rescue Association of BC, PhD Student, UBC Interdisciplinary PhD student
• Tim Takaro, Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
• Trevor Hancock, Retired Professor and Senior Scholar, School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria

You can REGISTER for this webalogue by clicking HERE