Abstract
The ultimate goal of environmental education is a healthier planet, and the goal of environmental health is a healthier global population. A transdisciplinary link between these disciplines is needed to synthesize new, transformative solutions that meet global healthcare challenges related to climate change and other environmental health issues. Outdoor environmental education increases the public’s connectedness to nature, biophilia, pro-environmental behavior, and environmental stewardship to protect the environment. Primordial prevention removes root determinants of disease from the environment to make environments risk-factor-free. Using a transdisciplinary systems approach, concepts related to outdoor environment education, primordial prevention, and environmental health are assembled together in this article to synthesize a proposed transdisciplinary model—Environmental Protection and Health Model (EPHM). The model can inform development of educational curricula that increase the public’s environmental literacy or knowledge of environmental issues, promote environmental problem solving, and increase pro-environmental behavior, while simultaneously improving environmental health by removing the root environmental determinants of disease within the global population.
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Brown, R.B. Transdisciplinary model for environmental protection and primordial prevention of disease. J Environ Stud Sci 12, 898–904 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-022-00751-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-022-00751-3