Golden Lab’s Planetary Health Research Group
The Golden Lab uses planetary health approaches to examine the human health impacts of climate and environmental change. Our team is split into two, with half of us focusing on data science approaches to establishing systems of climate-smart public health, and the other half focusing on healthy and sustainable food systems, with a particular focus on aquatic foods.
Building 2, Room 329
655 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Data Science Approaches to Planetary Health in Madagascar and Nepal
Using national health systems data integrated with remotely sensed climate and environmental data, our team has been researching several planetary health mechanisms. For example, in Madagascar and Nepal, we have been analyzing: 1) the role of drought and cyclones in causing food crop failures and the subsequent impacts on malnutrition and mental health; 2) the role of sea temperature rise on the incidence of harmful algal blooms and the subsequent impacts on diarrheal diseases, marine food intoxication events, and asthma; 3) the impact of deforestation on both vector-borne and water-borne diseases; and 4) the role of climate change in driving wildfire events that cause air pollution and subsequent impacts on stillbirth, acute respiratory infections, and other diseases.