By Matt Lamb
National Institute of Aging grant ‘will enable Brown researchers to study the negative health effects of climate change and develop practical solutions that promote healthy aging,’ according to the school
U.S. taxpayers will shell out millions of dollars so Brown University can create a center dedicated to studying climate change’s effect on old people.
“The center’s goal is to build adaptive strategies that improve the resilience of aging populations, locally and nationally, to the effects of climate change,” Professor Allan Just stated in a news release from the Rhode Island Ivy League university.
The $3.8 million National Institute of Aging grant “will enable Brown researchers to study the negative health effects of climate change and develop practical solutions that promote healthy aging,” according to the announcement.
“The new Climate, Health and Aging Innovation and Research Solutions for Communities center will draw on scholarship from a range of disciplines at Brown, from public health, to environmental and Earth science, to population studies,” the university announced.
It is the latest way health professionals want to link climate change to medicine. For example, some medical students and doctors want climate change to be part of med school curriculum, as The College Fix has previously reported.
Dr. Lisa DelBuono told The Fix “it is essential that professional schools educate their students about climate change and help them recognize impacts when they present in the office, clinic, or the ER.”
Brown’s Ivy League peer Harvard University is going further than training doctors to treat patients who may be harmed by warmer weather – it wants “planetary healers.”
“The idea is that we move from an understanding of planetary health to training planetary healers,” Professor Christopher Golden previously told The Crimson, discussing a new major.
“Structural racism and international economic policy have exacerbated the climate crisis, with communities of color, poor communities, and the Global South being disproportionately impacted,” the Chan School of Public Health website states. “You will be equipped to use research, leadership, advocacy, and policy to implement solutions that better serve these populations.”
…
