ABSTRACT
Although academic interest in the relationship between the environment and human health dates back well over two thousand years, the intimate connections between the state of the natural environment and human health have largely been forgotten across much of the modern health sciences. Public discussions on environmental health tend to focus on a core set of issues dealing with environmental exposures and related risks – air and water quality, health and safety at work, waste management, food safety, and so on. It is only relatively recently that this dialogue has broadened to include considerations of biodiversity, ecosystems, and the benefits we derive from them. When one considers the changing nature of global public health and related policy, it is clear that a strong basis for reconnecting the spheres of biodiversity and human health exists.
