ABSTRACT
The environment and human health are linked through our exposure to toxic chemicals; air, water, and ground pollution; climate change; extractive and energy industries; contaminated food; and natural disasters. This chapter reviews communication literature that links environmental and health issues. Specifically, I discuss essays and research about (a) the social construction of environment and health, including media coverage and media framing, (b) factors affecting public responses to environmental health issues, including political ideology, risk and benefit perceptions, and social support, (c) environmental health literacy, (d) persuasion and message design, including message strategies and information seeking, (e) communication by organizations, including nongovernmental organizations, governmental organizations, industry, and health organizations, and (f) environmental health, environmental justice, and climate justice movements. Approaches to studying environmental health communication include humanistic-rhetorical analyses, critical-cultural analyses, interpretive qualitative studies, and social scientific quantitative surveys and experiments. The chapter also identifies future directions for environmental health communication. To thrive, the field needs to increase the diversity of scholars and contexts represented in the literature; rely more heavily on theory to drive scholarship and practice; and center issues of race, class, and country in theory, research, and practice. Media effects, climate change, and persuasion present opportunities for growth.
