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Published in News & Views, A Publication of the American Public Health Association Student Assembly Winter 2008 Students' Role in Global Climate Change: Opportunity to Organize our Voice By Linda Lindquist, RN BSN Over the past year, the environmental community has expressed a sense of urgency to reduce the volume of greenhouse gases generated by human activities and to drastically modify human behav- ior in order to conserve energy. This message has been communicated clearly; however, the direct human health impacts from Global Climate Change have been less articulated. Students from all disciplines of public health are key stakeholders to engage the public's awareness about health issues that result from unprecedented patterns of extreme warming, such as increases in cardiovascular and respiratory complications, disease transmission, and morbidity and mortality. Students can choose to incorporate evidence-based research findings into printed materials or share findings at seminars and conferences. Educate your peers, faculty, and staff, or consider rep- licating technically savvy electronic campaign templates designed by organizations like Cool- cities.us and Focusthenation.org to effectively organize and raise consciousness, engage civic and elected officials, and shape policy. National Public Health Week is the impetus for student engagement. The same sense of urgency expressed by environmentalists is needed by the pubic health sector to improve human and popu- lation health outcomes from the warming of our communities. | 
