ABSTRACT

The multiple and diverse environmental challenges of the 21st century require new ways of thinking across all disciplines, including social work. What is becoming unequivocal is that ‘global warming and climate change will have wide-ranging effects on the environment, socio-economic, and other related sectors including health’ (Singh and Purohit, 2014: 112). The nuances of these effects are and will increasingly take the form of extreme weather events including heat waves, droughts, ocean acidification, species extinctions, and erratic rainfall patterns leading to water shortages in some areas, and flooding in others (Haines et al., 2006; Bowen and Friel, 2012; Hens and Stoyanov, 2014; Anderko et al., 2014; Hoy et al., 2014; McMichael et al., 2006). Additionally, alongside these changes in the physical environment is the projected rise in zoonotic and vector-borne illnesses (Ebi et al., 2006; Sachan and Singh, 2010; Goodman, 2013), the majority having no pharmaceutical interventions available.