What is Planetary Health?
Planetary health is the new integrated vision for the future of health of both people and the planet.
We now live in the Anthropocene epoch, in which human activities are the major drivers of global environmental change – such as climate change and biodiversity loss. In turn, these ecosystem alterations create new health problems for humans and other living things – injuries caused by typhoons, respiratory illness due to air pollution, or even the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Because of these pressing, complex and urgent challenges, there is a need for a new holistic approach. The Planetary Health Alliance defines planetary health as “the international and interdisciplinary field focused on characterizing and addressing the human health impacts of global environmental change.”
To tackle these problems head on, there must be a grand convergence of diverse disciplines – health professions such as medicine and nursing, physical and natural sciences such as ecology and geology, and the social sciences such as politics and economics.
The ultimate goal of planetary health is to achieve a state of balance and harmony – between the health of people and that of the planet, between economy and ecology, between society’s basic needs and the Earth’s boundaries. Such optimal level of human development and environmental sustainability must be founded on a true spirit of international and intergenerational equity and justice – with utmost care for the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized and for generations that are yet to come.
