Environmedics is a very timely book focusing on the effect of climate change on human health. It will be of great interest to healthcare providers with backgrounds in wilderness and environmental medicine. The book cover artwork is streamlined and eye-catching. The contents include 4 major parts and 15 chapters. The authors begin with a historical climate change primer, an analysis of heat waves, weather extremes, and human vector-borne disease. They go on to cover air quality degradation, water and food security, and allergens and algal blooms resulting from recent alterations in climate. The book then explores the very concerning phenomenon of biodiversity decline in our ecosystem. The authors conclude with a section on climate justice and recommendations for future interventions.
The book is scientifically well referenced with evidence-based sources. It uniquely contains witty and entertaining, yet informative case scenarios at the end of each chapter to drive an important point home. Clever, page-turning titles like “A Cruel Bite,” “Silent But Deadly,” “Germs Without Borders,” and the “Case of a Blue Baby Boy” are prime examples. The book could have benefited from a few color illustrations and photographs, but this would have driven up the cost of the product, which is now marketed at a reasonable price that will encourage a wider readership and audience.
This book is well written, compelling, cutting-edge, and easy to follow. It tells a riveting story and concludes with an awakening for all healthcare providers and policymakers with an interest in environmental health, the wilderness, and protecting our natural surroundings and resources. The authors end the book with an afterword section highlighting the innovative environmental work of young scientific thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and inventors, leaving the reader with a silver lining of hope, rather than pessimism, doom, and gloom.
I would highly recommend Environmedics. After reading it, I immediately shared it with my children because their generation has inherited a planet in need of an “all-hands-on-deck” call to action.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 20, 2018
Identification
Copyright
All rights reserved.
