Objectives and Structure 📋

The Heartbeat of the Planet self-learning course is tailored to the specific needs and interests of early and mid-career journalists reporting from the East African region. 

Before we begin, please look at the pointers below to familiarize yourself with how the course is structured. 

There are five lessons, each of which have various topics that offer a wealth of information, explainers and quizzes (for lessons 1-3) to help you become comfortable with investigating and answering essential questions about the impacts of climate change on public health for your audiences.    

Journalists cannot ignore what has been referred to as the story of the century. Research, according to the World Health Organization, shows that 3.6 billion people already live in areas highly susceptible to climate change. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone.  

After successfully completing this course, you will: 

• be equipped to understand the essential climate change concepts and definitions that you will need for your reporting toolbox.  
• understand how climate change impacts on the health of individuals and communities. 
• learn more about the many ways in which extreme weather events directly affect people’s health in the short- and long-term. 
• discover the indirect ways in which climate change affect us such as mental health and trafficking of women and children. 
• report on how communities are finding solutions to the health problems they encounter due to climate change. 
• have access to credible and reliable sources for your stories. 

Lesson Outline: 

Lesson 1: Climate change 🌍
This lesson covers the basic science of climate change and introduces fundamental concepts around weather, climate, climate change and climate variability. There are links to glossaries for definitions that cover this wide and complex field.
Greenhouse gases and humans are the main drivers of climate change. There is information on how the environment is affected and you will be introduced to the link between climate change and health.

Lesson 2: Direct health impacts 🌪️
Extreme weather events such as flooding, wildfires, cyclones and droughts affect people’s health directly. In the short-term to medium term, health impacts are mainly determined by population vulnerability. The various health conditions related to climate change include heat stress, respiratory issues, waterborne diseases, vector-borne diseases, mental health disorders, and injuries.

Lesson 3: Indirect health impacts 🌾
Indirect health consequences of climate change are those that result from the broader environmental, social, and economic impacts of climate change. These may not be immediately linked to climate change but are ultimately influenced by changes in the environment and human behaviour. This lesson includes topics such as food security and malnutrition, mental health, displacement and migration, gender-based violence.

Lesson 4: Solutions Journalism 📰
This lesson will take a deep dive into the stories that make a real difference to people’s lives — those that report on the way communities are looking for and finding solutions to problems created by climate change.

Lesson 5: Sources and Resources 📚
Who are credible sources for stories on the climate change-health link? How to develop sources. How to keep sources and get them to contact you and come back to you. What and where are the most reliable resources that are useful for journalists?