The second joint EUPHA and ASPHER European Public Health Conference, held in Lodz last November, had a strong focus on the need to have an ecological perspective for public health and to develop necessary capacities for meeting the global environmental and health challenges in the 21st century. Programmes and policies are needed that respond to poverty; prevent the emerging epidemics of non-communicable diseases and address global environmental change, natural and man-made disasters. As pointed out by Prof. AJ McMichael in his plenary lecture, population health research, practice and policy making must, very soon, come to terms with the manifest fact, that our societies face a widening set of human-induced global environmental changes. These changes, including global climate change, unsustainable production, consumption and resource use, often act via disruption of natural and social systems, posing new unfamiliar types of risks to health. On the other hand, ecological perspective of public health also creates possibility and opportunities to highlight benefits of the nature, with its ecosystems, for human health and well-being. As underlined during the workshop of the European Environment Agency (EEA) entitled ‘Towards Ecosystem Perspective’, the value of the natural environment will depend on many factors including the quality, accessibility and community involvement. To address these broad contextual issues in population health and to tackle the impact of global environmental change, there are many challenges facing scientists, policy makers, public health professionals and general public. This new perspective requires good information base, methods and tools, and broad cooperation between scientists, practitioners and politicians dealing with human health and environment, as well as with other stakeholders. Many disciplines are needed to help understand the links between environmental and social determinants of health and to provide evidence base for establishing public health policy. Health of the population cannot be achieved by a single …