INTRODUCTION

The course is designed to introduce current, local and global environmental challenges, their root causes, and the controversy over their seriousness. The course also examines efforts to overcome environmental obstacles, and potential or alternative solutions and resources.

Rapid population growth is leading to over-crowdedness in urban communities resulting in a number of challenges such as high rate of accidents, child labor, disease epidemics, malnutrition and hunger. Air quality is deteriorating with time, ozone levels are rising leading to adverse health effects among the population of the globe. In addition, human accelerated desertification is threatening clustered communities in many countries. The disappearance of the tropical forests is affecting the climate and has resulted in the extinction of various living species. On the other hand, industrial human activities are contaminating man's indispensable survival resources such water reservoirs.

All these challenges in addition to events of economical and political nature have a global effect on the environment and the health of the public. The course is an attempt to introduce all these issues to undergraduate Public Health students.