Understand the importance of the environment for our health, we need to know a little about the interdependence between the environment and humankind. This unit will look at ways in which humans have altered, and are altering the environment. These changes have health implications that are not always immediately obvious. Frequently, we initiate changes that are going to have their effects sometime in the future, and we will be looking at the legacies that we leave to future generations. We move on to consider our own demise and ask what exactly it is that we think we will be leaving for those who follow.

This unit will help you to understand the complexity of the interdependence between organisms and their environment, some of the consequences for the health of pollution and why it is difficult to reduce pollution.