Seminar Series – Dr. Brian McAdoo: Planetary Health and Disaster Justice

Brian McAdoo, Duke University

Planetary Health and Disaster Justice

With the onset of the Anthropocene, disasters are becoming increasingly commonplace as a supercharged climate produces increasingly frequent and powerful events that impact a variety of vulnerable and marginalized communities.  Unfortunately, many of the solutions aimed at reducing vulnerability and/or increasing resilience make matters worse by reducing the ecosystem services that exposed communities rely upon, or by simply adding more carbon to the atmosphere.  Planetary Health lens is valuable in informing truly just and sustainable solutions.  By recognizing that humans are impacting the Earth Systems provide us with life support under the banner of development, we are compromising the health and well-being of the most at-risk communities.  In this talk, we explore the intersection between “natural” disasters and community vulnerability, highlighting three exemplar solutions aimed at reducing the risk of marginalized populations while not harming the planet. 

Host: Michael Shore, Jonathan Lees