No. 115/2023

WELL-MEANT IS NOT NECESSARILY WELL DONE Intervention research investigates strategies to help counter climate change and infectious diseases. The health of the planet, the health of the individual and social justice – these are the three major global challenges facing us in the coming decades, according to Humboldt Professor Till Bärnighausen. And they are all closely connected. “If we use up or destroy the Earth’s natural resources – pollute the air and the water and chop down the forests, for example – that also has a negative impact on our bodily and mental health.” And, of course, a shortage of resources also engenders social problems. However, says Bärnighausen, progress in human health may come at the expense of planetary health when, for instance, better food supplies are achieved by environmentally detrimental intensive agriculture. In his role as director of the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH), Bärnig­ The German epidemiolo- gist PROFESSOR DR TILL BÄRNIGHAUSEN is the director of the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health at Heidelberg University Hospital. In 2017, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship. women didn’t go to work but stayed at home. That’s all changing now,” he says. “Today, you even come across more women at our universities than men. And many of them subsequently look for employment.” The greater role of women also has an impact on food security, he notes. “When women can decide independently, they make much better decisions for the health of children,” says Abbas. Consequently, the shift in gender roles gives him hope in the fight against hunger but also against climate change, especially as women are increasingly represented in politics in Pakistan and help to shape it. GOOD POLICIES RELY ON GOOD DATA With a view to climate change, sustainability and food security, Abbas thinks the forth­ coming challenges facing science are to advise politicians and the public on the basis of solid data. “Good policies have to be based on information and data. We must record reality as precisely as possible in order to achieve goals to improve public welfare, which should be the aim of every government.” One good example of this is civil protection in Germany from which countries like Pakistan could learn lessons: flood protection, for instance, though not always adequate, is at least clearly regulated. There are risk maps for endangered districts delineating the floodplains where building is prohibited. Flood insurance, which can mitigate the impact of a disaster, is still very rare in Pakistan, according to Abbas. It would also be possible to build more small dams in the upper reaches of rivers which would hold back the water, allowing it to be dosed and used for irrigation. LEARNING FROM GERMANY “We in the science and global community should share ideas far more and learn from one another,” Abbas believes. It greatly benefits climate adaptation, food security and environmental protection when institutions like the Humboldt Foundation enable researchers like him to conduct research in Germany. In his own case, a Georg Forster Research Fellowship and his doctorate in Germany had helped to lend weight to his voice in Pakistan. Today, Abbas fosters close contacts with the political arena as amember of various advisory committees. “In this country, too, politicians want to be re-elected, and it is hard to score with unpopular but necessary measures,” he reports. “But the more robust the scientific evidence, the greater the chance it’ll be heard.” Text JAN BERNDORFF FOCUS 24 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 115/2023