Guide editor
| Trevor Hancock | Public health physician and health promotion consultant |
Summary
- The leadership and action required to address much of the global ecological changes created by humans, will need to take place at a local level
- In contrast to global-level action which is often time-consuming and difficult, communities and local governments have frequently demonstrated more commitment and faster action
- Some important frameworks and tools are available to assess climate action programs, such as “One Planet Living” and the “ecological footprint”
- There are a number of health co-benefits of a more sustainable ‘One Planet’ way of life.
Resources
Power-point presentation from BCCI-2 session, 10 August 2019
Readings
Hancock T et al: One planet regions: planetary health at the local level.
www.thelancet.com/planetary-health Vol 1 June 2017 e92-3
Hancock, Trevor (2018): Healthy Cities 2.0 Transitioning towards “One Planet” cities (Key challenges facing 21st century cities, Part 3: Cities and Health 1(3): https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2018.1526659
CRD Climate Action Program. A series of documents can be found at: www.crd.bc.ca/climate including the Final Report of the Regional Climate Strategy (2017), and other reports such as Climate Action Reports, and Annual Progress Reports.
Other relevant websites
This is a regional non-profit collective that brings together and showcases individuals, local businesses, and institutions committed to improving the quality of life in the region.
https://www.saanich.ca/climateplan
The municipality of Saanich is an example of a community with a progressive climate action plan. Several .pdf documents can be downloaded from this site including: Climate Backgrounder Series (including various sectors, such as transportation); a Climate Action plan; a Climate Adaptation plan; and progress reports.
Saanich is a member of an international “One Planet Cities” project that brings together several partner cities. In addition to Saanich, these are: Elsinore (Denmark), Durban (South Africa), and Oxfordshire (UK).
Further reading and resources
The Ecological Determinants of Health: Global Change and Public Health Ottawa: Canadian Public Health Association, 2015. A 30 page Discussion Document and 100 page ‘Report in Brief’ are available. The former is now available as
while the latter is available as
Hancock, Trevor, Spady, Donald W. and Soskolne, Colin L. (Editors) (2015) Global change and Public Health: Addressing the Ecological Determinants of Health: The Report in Brief Available at www.cpha.ca/sites/default/files/assets/policy/edh-brief.pdf
Hancock, Trevor (2020) Health in the Anthropocene: From the Global to the Local. In: Kobayashi, A. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2nd edition. vol. 6, Elsevier, pp. 323–328. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10991-6
Hancock, Trevor; Desai, Pooran and Patrick, Rebecca (2019) Tools for creating a future of healthy One Planet cities in the Anthropocene Cities & Health DOI: 10.1080/23748834.2019.1668336
Hancock, Trevor (2019) Beyond science and technology: Creating Planetary Health needs ‘heart, gut and spirit’ work Challenges 10, 31; doi:10.3390/challe10010031 https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/10/1/31/pdf
Hancock, Trevor (2017) “Population Health Promotion in the Anthropocene” In Rootman, I. et al (2017) Health Promotion in Canada (4th edition) Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press
Hancock, Trevor (2017) “Healthy Cities and Communities: Urban Governance for Health” In Rootman, I. et al (2017) Health Promotion in Canada (4th edition) Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press
Video
Welcome to the Anthropocene
The Anthropocene explained in less than 4 minutes
Healthy Cities 2.0 Towards One Planet Cities
IUHPE Keynote, Rotorua, 2019
Welcome to the Anthropocene
Part of the Creating Resilient Green Built Neighbourhoods event hosted by Creatively United on Earth Day, 2019
British Columbia Coalition Institute 