This presentation will examine the impact of climate change on health through patient cases, providing a framework for assessing climate-related health risks and discussing integrative approaches to care. It will also explore how environmental factors influence integrative medicine, including the role of nature-based therapies in supporting patient well-being, focusing on adapting these strategies for low-income communities and urban areas with limited access to green spaces.

Wynne Armand, MD
Associate Director, Mass General Center for the Environment and Health
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

Barbara Walker, PhD
Integrative Health and Performance Psychologist, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine

Passing environmental policy is difficult, because of the – reasonable – concern that it will increase costs. But implementation often leads to systemic changes that make environmental regulation cheaper and easier to implement than expected.

In the Energy Policy Seminar, Beth DeSombre will examine domestic and international regulations to protect the ozone layer, and aspects of the U.S. Clean Air Act regulating power plant and automobile emissions, identifying four specific pathways through which system changes contribute to decreasing costs: disruption of standard operating procedures, innovation, increased availability of alternatives, and creation of enabling mechanisms. Understanding how the implementation of regulations can decrease costs can suggest better or worse approaches to crafting and implementing policy.