ES/GE/HE 320 - Environment, Health & Development in Chile and Latin America

Using the lens of geography, this course provides students with the opportunity to apply a geographic and territorial perspective to the concepts of environment, health, and development. In particular, it seeks to understand the complex relationships between these concepts across space, in different places, and at multiple scales. 

Through a series of case studies highlighting the relationship between the environment, health, and development models in Latin America and Chile, organized by thematic axes (climate change, water, transport, extractivism), this course challenges students to pose and answer the following questions:

· Is there a direct link between the health of ecosystems and the health of the populations that inhabit them?
· Does a healthier environment translate into a healthier population?
· What is the nexus between economic development models and human public health?
· Does greater economic development automatically mean a higher number of healthy people?
· How does the health of communities contribute to sustainable development and ecosystem resilience?