Environment

Section Editor: Matthew Chersich, Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Deputy Section Editor: Maud Huynen, Maastricht University, the Netherlands 

Ecosystems often cross borders, and their ecologies are heavily impacted by globalizing processes: climate change, resource depletion, pollution or, more positively, sustainable agriculture or renewable energy initiatives. Globalization plays a role (for better and for worse) in the health or vitality of ecosystems, which in turn plays a role in human health with feedback loops creating complex pathways of causality. Sustainable development has become the dominant theme of the post-2015 development agenda, as the potential of broad-based ecological crises keeps global environmental issues high on the global policy agenda. Papers submitted under this topic examine pathways by which globalization processes (e.g. trade, investment, economic growth, population growth, and other anthropogenic activities) impact health outcomes via pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, water security, food security/insecurity, and other ecosystem transformations that give rise to increased health risks. A particular interest is in submissions that address the equity dimensions of the causes and consequences of globalization-related changes in environmental health risks.