RESUMO
Introduction: Anthropogenic activities led to systematic repercussions on both human and planetary health boundaries and pose the most immediate threat to national health systems. Scientific evidence demonstrates the escalating climate crisis impacting a range of health conditions and factors. Direct and indirect implications of climate change on hearing health, such as noise pollution, chemical exposure, and arboviruses infections, notably contribute to hearing loss. Epidemic environmental-triggered infections such as Sars, Zika, Ebola, and Lassa Fever are examples of climate-associated diseases with hearing loss. Specific populations particularly vulnerable to climate-related hearing impairments include children, elderly, rural communities, and immigrants. The worsening climate crisis in the Brazilian Amazon region underscores the need for preparing local healthcare professionals. Climate education through a planetary health literacy empowers communities' resilience and adaptation to the climate crisis and its impacts on human health. Open education offers a promising approach to improving the quality of scientifically informed content on the health impacts of climate change. Objective: We aim to explore the development of a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on the open education platform Wikiversity on planetary health and human health communication training for Amazon health professionals. Methodology: Wikiversity offers a technological backend for building scalable MOOCs, utilizing JavaScript, Lua, and CSS on the internet-based platform. MOOCs may include modules, quizzes, and tasks organized within an index file containing the course infrastructure (sections, titles, and summaries). The MOOC materials were created by members of the research team and invited professors/researchers. Each MOOC lesson consists of a video lecture, text with hyperlinks to Wikipedia articles, and bibliographic references on the lesson's topic. All multimedia materials (images and videos) incorporated into the MOOC are stored in the Wikimedia Commons open-license repository. The intersection of human communication with the context of climate change was explored by examining its effects on aging, adult language, neurological alterations, language acquisition and development, and hearing health. The objective was to develop training content to strengthen the theoretical-practical connection between planetary health and human communication. Results: The MOOC consists of five modules: (i) Human Communication Fundamentals: Introducing key concepts for healthcare professionals in the context of the climate crisis; (ii) Planetary Health Concepts: Exploring the impact of climate crisis on mental health and nutrition; (iii) Disasters and Health: Examining health impacts of human-technological and natural disasters, with focus on the Amazon region; (iv) Unified Health System and Climate Change: Addressing climate crisis effects on national healthcare systems, using Brazil as a model; and (v) Healthcare Training: Emphasizing communication aspects for healthcare professionals in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Conclusion: The Wikiversity course model highlights the crucial role of open education in fostering planetary health literacy. Therefore, the proposed MOOC has the potential to facilitate healthcare training and disseminate knowledge concerning the impact of the climate crisis on human communication.