More than 30 scholars and scientists from the University of Alberta are creating a university hub to shift the view of climate change from an environmental problem to a threat to human health. Wildfire smoke, which last summer gave Canada some of the worst air quality on the globe, damages lung function, especially in children. Bodies and minds are just as affected by climate change as sea ice and forests, says University of Alberta scientist Sherilee Harper.
That's why Harper, along with 30 or so colleagues from disciplines as wide-ranging as economics and epidemiology, have banded together into what she calls Canada's first university hub to shift the view of climate change from an environmental problem to a threat to human health