1
|
Ram SA, MacLean HL, Tihanyi D, Hannah L, Posen ID. The complex relationship between carbon literacy and pro-environmental actions among engineering students. Heliyon 2023; 9:e20634. [PMID: 38034751 PMCID: PMC10682548 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/03/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Lifestyle choices and consumption play a large role in contributing to per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Certain activities, like fossil fuel ground transportation, long-haul flights, diets with animal products and residential heating and cooling contribute significantly to per capita emissions. There is uncertainty around whether literacy about these actions encourages individuals to act pro-environmentally to reduce personal carbon footprints or to prioritize the most effective actions. This study investigated the relationship between carbon literacy and pro-environmental actions performed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among undergraduate engineering students at the University of Toronto. The pro-environmental actions by the participants produced an average carbon footprint of 4.8 tCO2 (within the subset of actions included in the survey) which was lower than the average for residents each of Toronto, Ontario, and Canada overall but still higher than the global target of ∼2.8 tCO2e. The carbon literacy by participants was best for high impact actions like ground transportation and dietary choices but less so for air travel and there was mixed awareness for the moderate and low impact actions. For high impact actions and many moderate and low impact actions, participants who thought the action was high impact (even if incorrect) had lower carbon footprints related to the associated activity than those who thought the action was moderate or low impact. The overall relationship between pro-environmental action and carbon literacy was weak. It showed that for high impact actions, there is a slight negative correlation between carbon literacy and personal carbon footprint whereas for moderate and low impact actions, there is a positive correlation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sherry Ann Ram
- University of Toronto, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, 35 St George St, Toronto, ON, M8Z 3Y6, Canada
| | - Heather L. MacLean
- University of Toronto, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, 35 St George St, Toronto, ON, M8Z 3Y6, Canada
- University of Toronto, Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice (ISTEP), 55 St. George Street, Room 723, Toronto, ON, M5S 0C9, Canada
- University of Toronto, School of the Environment, 1016V-33 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON, M5S3E8, Canada
| | - Deborah Tihanyi
- University of Toronto, Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice (ISTEP), 55 St. George Street, Room 723, Toronto, ON, M5S 0C9, Canada
- University of Toronto, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, 5 King's College Road Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G8, Canada
| | - Liam Hannah
- University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON, M5S 1V6, Canada
| | - I. Daniel Posen
- University of Toronto, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, 35 St George St, Toronto, ON, M8Z 3Y6, Canada
- University of Toronto, Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice (ISTEP), 55 St. George Street, Room 723, Toronto, ON, M5S 0C9, Canada
- University of Toronto, School of the Environment, 1016V-33 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON, M5S3E8, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Filho WL, de Andrade Guerra JBSO, de Aguiar Dutra AR, Peixoto MGM, Traebert J, Nagy GJ. Planetary health and health education in Brazil: Facing inequalities. One Health 2022; 15:100461. [PMID: 36561709 PMCID: PMC9767810 DOI: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2022.100461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Brazil has the world's fifth-largest population and seventh-largest economy. However, it also has many inequalities, especially in health education, which impacts health sector services. Thus, this article aims to describe the situation of planetary health and health education in Brazil, identifying how current policies support the cause of planetary health. This study had a qualitative approach characterised as exploratory research based on an integrative review and documentary research. The results show that, in recent decades, there have been positive improvements to achieve collective and planetary health, which advocates empathy and pro-environmental and humanitarian attitudes. However, the pursuit of planetary health in Brazil is being influenced by various challenges, ranging from the need for a sound policy framework to provisions of education and training on planetary health. Based on the need to address these deficiencies, the paper suggests some measures which should be considered as part of efforts to realise the potential of planetary health in the fifth largest country in the world.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Walter Leal Filho
- Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Natural Sciences, Chester Street, Manchester M1 5GD, UK,Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg, Germany
| | - José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Guerra
- University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNISUL), Centre for Sustainable Development/Research Group on Energy Efficiency and Sustainability (GREENS), Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil,Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance, (CEENRG), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Ana Regina de Aguiar Dutra
- University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNISUL), Centre for Sustainable Development/Research Group on Energy Efficiency and Sustainability (GREENS), Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
| | | | - Jefferson Traebert
- Graduate Program in Health Sciences, University of Southern Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
| | - Gustavo J. Nagy
- Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales y Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Uruguay,Corresponding author.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Morshed AB, Kasman M, Heuberger B, Hammond RA, Hovmand PS. A systematic review of system dynamics and agent-based obesity models: Evaluating obesity as part of the global syndemic. Obes Rev 2019; 20 Suppl 2:161-178. [PMID: 31317637 DOI: 10.1111/obr.12877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2018] [Revised: 04/14/2019] [Accepted: 04/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The problem of obesity has recently been reframed as part of the global syndemic-the co-occurring, interacting pandemics of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change that are driven by common underlying societal drivers. System science modeling approaches may help clarify how these shared drivers operate and the best ways to address them. The objective of this paper was to determine to what extent existing agent-based and system dynamics computational models of obesity provide insights into the shared drivers of the global syndemic. Peer-reviewed studies published until July 2018 were identified from Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. Thirty-eight studies representing 30 computational models were included. They show a growing use of system dynamics and agent-based modeling in the past decade. They most often examined mechanisms and interventions in the areas of social network-based influences on obesity, physiology and disease state mechanics, and the role of food and physical activity environments. Usefulness for identifying common drivers of the global syndemic was mixed; most models represented Western settings and focused on obesity determinants close to the person (eg, social circles, school settings, and neighborhood environments), with a relative paucity in models at mesolevel and macrolevel and in developing country contexts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Ross A Hammond
- Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.,The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.,The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico
| | - Peter S Hovmand
- Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
An R, Ji M, Zhang S. Global warming and obesity: a systematic review. Obes Rev 2018; 19:150-163. [PMID: 28977817 DOI: 10.1111/obr.12624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2017] [Revised: 08/28/2017] [Accepted: 08/29/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Global warming and the obesity epidemic are two unprecedented challenges mankind faces today. A literature search was conducted in the PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO and Scopus for articles published until July 2017 that reported findings on the relationship between global warming and the obesity epidemic. Fifty studies were identified. Topic-wise, articles were classified into four relationships - global warming and the obesity epidemic are correlated because of common drivers (n = 21); global warming influences the obesity epidemic (n = 13); the obesity epidemic influences global warming (n = 13); and global warming and the obesity epidemic influence each other (n = 3). We constructed a conceptual model linking global warming and the obesity epidemic - the fossil fuel economy, population growth and industrialization impact land use and urbanization, motorized transportation and agricultural productivity and consequently influences global warming by excess greenhouse gas emission and the obesity epidemic by nutrition transition and physical inactivity; global warming also directly impacts obesity by food supply/price shock and adaptive thermogenesis, and the obesity epidemic impacts global warming by the elevated energy consumption. Policies that endorse deployment of clean and sustainable energy sources, and urban designs that promote active lifestyles, are likely to alleviate the societal burden of global warming and obesity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- R An
- Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
| | - M Ji
- Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
| | - S Zhang
- School of Sports Journalism and Foreign Studies, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Jones M, Verity F. Partnerships in obesity prevention: maximising co-benefits. Health Promot J Austr 2017; 28:44-51. [PMID: 28110641 DOI: 10.1071/he16047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2016] [Accepted: 11/04/2016] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Issue addressed Partnerships were used to increase healthy eating and active living in children for the Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle (OPAL) program, a systems-wide, community-based childhood obesity prevention program in South Australia. This part of the multi-component evaluation examines stakeholders' perceptions of how OPAL staff worked in partnership and factors contributing to strong partnerships. Methods Pre- and post-interviews and focus groups with multi-sector stakeholders (n=131) across six OPAL communities were analysed using NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software. Results Stakeholders reflected positively on projects developed in partnership with OPAL, reporting that staff worked to establish co-benefits. They identified several factors that contributed to the strengthening of partnerships: staff skills, visibility, resources and sustainability. Conclusions Rather than implementing projects with stakeholders with shared organisational goals, local shared projects were implemented that included a breadth of co-benefits, allowing multi-sector stakeholders to meet their own organisational goals. Practitioners who have the capacity to be flexible, persistent, knowledgeable and skilled communicators are required to negotiate projects, achieving benefit for both health and stakeholders' organisational goals. So what? Engaging in partnership practice to broker co-benefits at the micro or program level has been an effective model for community engagement and change in OPAL. It foregrounds the need for the inclusion of value to partners, which differs from situations in which organisations come together around common goals.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michelle Jones
- Department for Health and Ageing, PO Box 287, Rundle Mall, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
| | - Fiona Verity
- College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Giles-Corti B, Vernez-Moudon A, Reis R, Turrell G, Dannenberg AL, Badland H, Foster S, Lowe M, Sallis JF, Stevenson M, Owen N. City planning and population health: a global challenge. Lancet 2016; 388:2912-2924. [PMID: 27671668 DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(16)30066-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 447] [Impact Index Per Article: 55.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Significant global health challenges are being confronted in the 21st century, prompting calls to rethink approaches to disease prevention. A key part of the solution is city planning that reduces non-communicable diseases and road trauma while also managing rapid urbanisation. This Series of papers considers the health impacts of city planning through transport mode choices. In this, the first paper, we identify eight integrated regional and local interventions that, when combined, encourage walking, cycling, and public transport use, while reducing private motor vehicle use. These interventions are destination accessibility, equitable distribution of employment across cities, managing demand by reducing the availability and increasing the cost of parking, designing pedestrian-friendly and cycling-friendly movement networks, achieving optimum levels of residential density, reducing distance to public transport, and enhancing the desirability of active travel modes (eg, creating safe attractive neighbourhoods and safe, affordable, and convenient public transport). Together, these interventions will create healthier and more sustainable compact cities that reduce the environmental, social, and behavioural risk factors that affect lifestyle choices, levels of traffic, environmental pollution, noise, and crime. The health sector, including health ministers, must lead in advocating for integrated multisector city planning that prioritises health, sustainability, and liveability outcomes, particularly in rapidly changing low-income and middle-income countries. We recommend establishing a set of indicators to benchmark and monitor progress towards achievement of more compact cities that promote health and reduce health inequities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Rodrigo Reis
- Pontifical Catholic University of Parana, Parana, Brazil; Washington University at St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA; Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil
| | - Gavin Turrell
- Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | | | | | - Sarah Foster
- University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Melanie Lowe
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | | | | | - Neville Owen
- Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Abstract
Human and planetary health as well as economic growth are firmly interlinked and subject to complex interaction effects. In this paper, we provide an overview of interlinkages between economic growth, climate change, and obesity focusing on recent advances in the literature. In addition to empirical findings, we discuss different theoretical frameworks used to conceptualize these complex links and highlight policy options and challenges. We conclude that policies addressing both climate change and obesity simultaneously are particularly promising and often suitable for ensuring sustainable development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dimitrios Minos
- Newcastle University, Richardson Road, NE2 4AX, Newcastle, UK.
- Georg-August University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
| | - Iris Butzlaff
- Georg-August University of Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, 37073, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Kathrin Maria Demmler
- Georg-August University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 12, 37073, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Ramona Rischke
- Georg-August University of Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, 37073, Göttingen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Harray AJ, Boushey CJ, Pollard CM, Delp EJ, Ahmad Z, Dhaliwal SS, Mukhtar SA, Kerr DA. A Novel Dietary Assessment Method to Measure a Healthy and Sustainable Diet Using the Mobile Food Record: Protocol and Methodology. Nutrients 2015; 7:5375-95. [PMID: 26151176 PMCID: PMC4517003 DOI: 10.3390/nu7075226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2015] [Revised: 06/05/2015] [Accepted: 06/24/2015] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The world-wide rise in obesity parallels growing concerns of global warming and depleting natural resources. These issues are often considered separately but there may be considerable benefit to raising awareness of the impact of dietary behaviours and practices on the food supply. Australians have diets inconsistent with recommendations, typically low in fruit and vegetables and high in energy-dense nutrient-poor foods and beverages (EDNP). These EDNP foods are often highly processed and packaged, negatively influencing both health and the environment. This paper describes a proposed dietary assessment method to measure healthy and sustainable dietary behaviours using 4-days of food and beverage images from the mobile food record (mFR) application. The mFR images will be assessed for serves of fruit and vegetables (including seasonality), dairy, eggs and red meat, poultry and fish, ultra-processed EDNP foods, individually packaged foods, and plate waste. A prediction model for a Healthy and Sustainable Diet Index will be developed and tested for validity and reliability. The use of the mFR to assess adherence to a healthy and sustainable diet is a novel and innovative approach to dietary assessment and will have application in population monitoring, guiding intervention development, educating consumers, health professionals and policy makers, and influencing dietary recommendations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Amelia J Harray
- School of Public Health, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845, Australia.
| | - Carol J Boushey
- Epidemiology Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA.
- Video and Image Processing Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2035, USA.
| | - Christina M Pollard
- School of Public Health, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845, Australia.
- Department of Health Western Australia, Perth 6004, Australia.
| | - Edward J Delp
- Video and Image Processing Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2035, USA.
| | - Ziad Ahmad
- Video and Image Processing Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2035, USA.
| | - Satvinder S Dhaliwal
- School of Public Health, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845, Australia.
| | - Syed Aqif Mukhtar
- Centre for Population Health Research, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845, Australia.
| | - Deborah A Kerr
- School of Public Health, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845, Australia.
| |
Collapse
|