A new center called Climate and Health: Action and Research for Transformational Change (CHART) aims to build research capacity and catalyze and coordinate climate and health research and evidence-based solutions on climate change across Columbia University. CHART, which is funded by a three-year $4.2 million grant from the National Institute of Aging (NIA), will also promote climate justice through community engagement.
CHART is led by Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, ScD, associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; Kiros Berhane, PhD, chair of biostatistics at Columbia Mailman; and Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences and of climate at Columbia Mailman and Columbia's Climate School. It brings together researchers from across the university with broad expertise, including in epidemiology, statistics, environmental health, sociology, toxicology, data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, climate science, engineering, and medicine.
CHART members include faculty in Columbia Mailman Climate and Health Program-the first program of its kind in a school of public health when it launched in 2008; the Global Center for Climate and Health Education, which is housed at Columbia Mailman; and the Columbia Climate School, the first climate school in the nation. They include researchers in several Columbia Mailman academic departments, including Biostatistics, Environmental Health Sciences, and Sociomedical Sciences. Members and collaborators also represent Columbia's Climate School and International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Data Science Institute, Columbia Engineering, School of Social Work, and Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
CHART faculty have contributed research on the health risks of extreme weather events, high temperatures, and air pollution, among other topics. They have also participated in COP climate summits and developed innovative training programs in research translation and dissemination around climate justice.
"The most significant current threat to global public health is climate change, and this threat will remain for the foreseeable future. To take effective action, it is essential to develop reliable and relevant scientific evidence and understanding to inform appropriate policies and interventions," says Kioumourtzoglou. "High-quality scientific evidence is necessary to ensure that the actions to create more resilient communities, reduce disease burden, and improve overall health outcomes and well-being while eliminating disparities."
CHART will address an urgent need and build research capacity to help unravel the complex relationships between climate and health and promote evidence-based policies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on human health, and specifically the aging brain. To achieve these goals, the Center aims to break down silos between fields of research and bring together scholars with diverse backgrounds and expertise, from lab-based research at the molecular level to population science. To ensure that research-generated scientific evidence is actionable and relevant to all communities, CHART will engage with communities, including clinicians and front-line organizers, to develop findings that can guide equitable investments, policies, and mitigation plans. Ultimately, CHART aims to advance climate and health research at local, regional, national, and international levels.
CHART researchers will be collaborating on research projects to evaluate the impact of multiple co-occurring climate threats on neurodegeneration-specifically, Alzheimer's disease and cognitive function. They will evaluate the relationship between where people live, their exposure to climate-related factors like extreme heat and flooding, outcomes including hospitalizations related to Alzheimer's disease or dementia, as well as sociodemographic factors and quality of housing-with the latter being one potential avenue for intervention. "Most studies to date have focused on characterizing the impacts of exposure to a single climate threat on adverse health outcomes. However, climate events often co-occur, with variation across space and time. CHART's multidisciplinary team will take a broader approach to give us a fuller understanding of the health risks of our changing climate, while also potentially opening avenues for adaptation and building resilience," Kioumourtzoglou says.
The related NIA grant number is P20AG093975.
