This chapter focuses on three current environmental health issues of great importance to rural populations environmental justice, gene-environment interactions, and climate change. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has proven effective in several research studies, including determining the etiology of environmentally related diseases, exposure assessments, and interventions in marginalized communities. Genetic differences and susceptibilities may determine who will have worse health from short-term or protracted exposure to various environmental conditions compared to their nonexposed contemporaries. Effects of climate change will vary by population group and area of the globe and will include impacts on public health, human rights, social equality, society, and economic well-being. From the extremes of weather causing human injuries, hyper- and hypothermia, droughts resulting in famine, increases in respiratory ailments, vector and water-borne diseases, and human displacement and death, climate is expected to continue to change with time and continue to influence public health.