Planetary Health

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The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health recognizes that human
health and the health of our planet are inextricably linked, and that our civilization depends on
human health, flourishing natural systems, and the wise stewardship of natural resources. With
natural systems being degraded to an extent unprecedented in human history, both our health
and that of our planet are in peril.
With this in mind, The Rockefeller Foundation and UNFCCC secretariat launched a new, three-
year project that will shine a light on solutions to balance the need for both human health and a
healthy planet starting in 2017.
UN Global Climate Action
Awards: Planetary Health
UN Global Climate Action Awards: Planetary Health will recognize and showcase novel solutions
by communities, cities, companies, NGOs and other institutions that balance the need for healthy
communities with stewardship of natural ecosystems.
The Paris Climate Change Agreement explicitly links climate action with a healthier environment
– from cleaner air and reduced risks of extreme heatwaves to keeping in check the spread of
diseases.
One well-known impact of human behavior is the changing climate, which is altering the pattern
of diseases, mortality, human settlements, food, water, and sanitation. Climate change brings
increasing temperatures, rising seas, and more frequent incidence of severe storms. Known
human impacts include flooding that can increase risks of water-related illnesses as well as
vector-borne illnesses; an impact on food production – both in terms of increased drought cycles
and diminished micronutrients in staple crops; and the pollutants that are tied to carbon
emissions (and climate change) are also detrimental to human health. Today, there is greater
mortality globally due to air pollution than because of HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
Planetary health is a new field, and one that needs ideas and solutions that span multiple sectors
and disciplines to guide the creative stewardship of our planet to protect our own health. UN
Global Climate Action Awards: Planetary Health shows how communities are creating new ways
to use the planet’s resources wisely to protect their health – ways that can serve as a model for
others.

Recognizing innovative climate

actions
UN Global Climate Action Awards: Planetary Health winning projects demonstrate concrete
results to address climate change.
Explore all award-winning projects in the Planetary Health category below.

MANAGING PLANETARY HEALTH IN AN ERA OF CLIMATE

CRISIS
Climate change and public health demand a new architecture for collaboration.
NEWS
Feb 12, 2024
Cluster Research
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To understand how climate change influences public health, many clinicians believe
a more comprehensive model is needed, one that no longer views health and
environment as independent issues for national governments or global bodies like
the United Nations to address separately. Instead, they say, we must consider the
interplay of health, climate change, and the environment.

Many are calling it “planetary health” – viewing the heath of humans and of natural
systems as inseparable.

“One billion children are at extremely high risk from the impacts of climate change.
That’s about half the kids on the planet,” said Elizabeth Willetts, the Planetary Health
Policy Director at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, citing UNICEF
data. “These risks arise from diverse ecological changes and adverse impacts to
ecosystem services. We must look at these things together. Climate change causes
flooding; flooding causes leaching of chemicals and pooling of unsafe water. This
interconnectedness demands we move out of our silos.

“We need to think about the spectrum of environmental changes caused by climate
change and how these impact children worldwide. We also know much of the
knowledge of early changes to ecosystems and biodiversity will only be understood
by engaging local communities, whom we must treat as experts in public health
prevention and innovation.”

Willetts, who has more than 20 years’ experience mobilizing engagement on

biodiversity, climate change, food systems and community health for marginalized
populations – both abroad and in Massachusetts – led a research workshop this
month hosted by the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard
University.

Environmental factors are believed to determine roughly a quarter of all deaths

globally, a figure Willetts called an underestimate: “These numbers are raw, they’re
crude, they’re hard to calculate. They also don’t account for sublethal issues – renal
disease from pesticides, or mental health disorders from natural hazards and the
trauma they cause, etc.”
Children fetch water in a former fishing village turned to desert in Kazakhstan’s Aral
Sea region. (David Trilling)
Currently, issues covered by planetary health are handled by four different UN
agencies with different mandates: The UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) oversees international climate change negotiations, the WHO
handles public health, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) convenes
governments on biodiversity and pollution, and several other agencies shape food
governance.

Unpacking the policy structures and global decision-making architecture, Willetts

illustrated the problem with case studies from southeast Asia, where she worked with
the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(UNESCAP) to find synergies in international and domestic approaches to planetary
health.

Beyond a lack of coordination at the national level in most cases, and a lack of
structures working together internationally, she and her colleagues found an
absence of literature examining and describing best practices in coordination.

“So that is one of the areas we’re focused on: How you create the platforms for
countries to share best practices and look at resource efficiency and interrelated
environment-health risks with a systems-thinking viewpoint.”

Looking ahead, there is good news.

For the first time, global bodies are beginning to consider elements of a planetary
health system.
The UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience adopted in late 2023
at COP28 discussed health and other related risks from climate change – “the first
time health indicators are planted into the decision text under the UNFCCC,” she
said.

“It also talked about health impacts from other areas that aren’t always grouped
under the health umbrella, including water security and water-related hazards,
adequate food and nutrition, and preservation and regeneration of nature,” Willetts
said, listing global meetings this year that are expected to integrate concerns on
climate change, environment, and health: the UN Environment Assembly 6, the
World Health Assembly 77, and the Convention on Biological Diversity COP16.

“As much as we may feel pessimistic about progress in global governance, these
forums have an impact on the structure and framing of what happens at the national
level,” she explained. “This is a very comprehensive landscape compared to where
we have been only recently.”

PLANETARY HEALTH:
ADDRESSING
CLIMATE, HEALTH
AND EQUITY
TOGETHER
by Dr Montira Pongsiri, Senior Advisor for Climate Change and Health, Save
the Children US
Ethel, 12, collecting water with her grandmother in their displacement camp,
Malawi. Thoko Chikondi/Save the Children.
WE STAND SIDE BY SIDE WITH CHILDREN IN THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST
PLACES.
DONATE NOW
Scientists working at the science-policy interface have a shared interest in
mobilizing science for impact – through informed decision-making, policy,
advocacy, and solutions on the ground. How we do this is just as important as
achieving that impact.

Planetary health is the foundational framework of understanding the

environment and health nexus challenges we face today. Increasingly,
planetary health is the foundation of how organizations such as my own are
operationalizing programming, evidence-based policy and advocacy.

Planetary health says that unless we dramatically change the way we

currently use our natural resources, we risk the health of human
civilization [1]. Planetary health makes explicit the state of natural systems
such as our climate, forests, wetlands and oceans in influencing health.
Human-driven global environmental changes such as climate change, land use
change and biodiversity loss have the potential to disrupt the progress of
humanity because they affect the provision of food and safe drinking water
and the regulation of our air; and, because they have the potential to
exacerbate already existing socially-mediated risks such as displacement [2].
The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health Report’s
key message was that while we have made significant gains in health and
development over the last 50 years, they are likely to be reversed by the
unprecedented global environmental changes such as climate change
which we are now experiencing. The second key message was that reversals
can be minimized if the drivers and consequences of global environmental
changes are understood, and this understanding is reflected in policy and
planning.

An example of planetary health that is becoming more salient in our daily lives
is the health impacts of a rapidly changing climate. There are direct (e.g.
heat stress), indirect (e.g. monsoon flooding, air pollution), ecosystem-
mediated (e.g. vector-borne disease), and other pathways by which
climate change can affect health.

The most recent IPCC assessment report warned that climate impacts will
happen simultaneously in ways that may be hard to predict. Underprivileged
groups such as children, women and the poor, may be disproportionately
adversely affected [3]. A recent study found that under current Paris
Agreement country commitments, a child born in 2020 will experience on
average twice as many wildfires, 2.8 times the exposure to crop failure, 2.6
times as many drought events, 2.8 times as many river floods, and 6.8
times more heatwaves across their lifetimes, compared to a person born in
1960 [4]. The impacts will be greater for some children – those living through
conflict; those most severely impacted by COVID-19; and, those experiencing
inequality and discrimination on the basis of gender, disability, displacement
or other factors [5].

Addressing the health impacts of climate change is critical because

climate adaptation and mitigation planning by countries cannot ignore
health. Doing so could result in tradeoffs and unintended consequences which
could ultimately undermine our well-intentioned efforts to improve health.

Climate change increases inequities, in the present and for future

generations. Climate and health is a climate, health and equity challenge –
these must be addressed together. At Save the Children, we developed
an organization-wide strategy and programming which are organized to
address climate, health and equity through:

1. Improving understanding of the multi-sectoral impacts of, and

interconnections between, human activities, climate and health as
well as the social determinants which contribute to it
 2. Fostering community actions to identify, test, evaluate and scale
interventions with climate, health and equity benefits to help
communities prevent or reduce adverse impacts
3. Supporting cross-sectoral governance on climate and health through
the use of integrated data and decision support tools
4. Strengthening skills and leadership capacity of communities to
engage in co-design and implementation of evidence-based actions on
climate and health
5. Developing multiple-benefits based advocacy to engage public and
private sectors on climate and health

In Niger, we are conducting a project to integrate data on drought,

household economies, and malnutrition risk to develop early warnings so
that governments can take anticipatory action to reduce risks to health and
livelihoods through improved cash transfer and other programs to improve
quality of the diet of children and families. In Laos PDR, we are developing a
project with the Government’s Ministries of Health and Natural Resources and
Environment along with other partners to adapt to climate change by
strengthening health system resilience and also supporting the
government’s mitigation goals.

We are taking a systems-based approach to address climate, health and

equity. Sustainable solutions to climate-sensitive health challenges will
require policies across health and other health-influencing sectors including
water, agriculture, energy, and transport.

Fundamentally, solutions will require meaningful, inclusive engagement of

communities - youth, women, other disadvantaged groups, decision
makers, academia and community leaders/influencers - to identify their
greatest threats to health from climate change, their root causes, and
increase visibility for who is most at risk and how. This shared
understanding is the first step to help identify communities’ priority actions on
climate which can help them move towards the future they want for their
health. Researchers, policymakers, implementers, and donors should invest in
applied science-based tools and engagement models which support how
communities can get there.

This blog article was originally published in Intl Science Council website.
[1] Whitmee, S. et al. (2015). "Safeguarding human health in the
Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–
Lancet Commission on planetary health." The Lancet 386.10007, 1973-2028.

[2] Frumkin H, Haines A. Global environmental change and NCD risk. Annu.
Rev. Public Health 2019; 40:27.1-27.22.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). Biodiversity. In: Mace G. et al.,

eds. Millennium ecosystem assessment: current state and trends: findings of
the condition and trends working group ecosystems and human well-being.
Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005.

[3] IPCC (2022). WGII Sixth Assessment Report.

[4] Thiery W, Lange S, et al. Intergenerational inequities in exposure to

climate extremes. Science 2021; 6564: 158-60.

[5] Save the Children. Born into the Climate Crisis: Why We Must Act Now
to Secure Children’s Rights. Save the Children: London, 2021.

Montira Pongsiri is a Senior Advisor on Climate and Health at Save the

Children. Dr. Pongsiri was the first Science Advisor at the U.S. Mission to the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia where
she led the Mission’s efforts to work with Member States to apply science and
technology to support ASEAN’s sustainability goals and to strengthen the
capacity of science-based policymaking through programs such as the
ASEAN-US Science and Technology Fellows Program. She is a Council
Member of the Southeast Asia Science Advice Network (SEA SAN).

 CONNECTING PLANETARY HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE



For many, the COVID-19 crisis has been an empirical demonstration of the
impacts of biodiversity loss on human health. The sanitary impacts
of biodiversity loss have been documented for a while, and in particular the
linkages between ecosystems degradation and the proliferation of
zoonotic diseases – that is, diseases transmitted from animals to humans.
However, before the crisis, the focus of biodiversity loss was often on affecting
primarily ecosystems, and not human societies. The health impacts of climate
change are also well-documented. Every year, the annual report of The Lancet
Countdown Initiative reviews these impacts, which range from cardio-vascular
troubles to allergies and infectious diseases, such as dengue or malaria. The
World Health Organization reckons that climate change could claim 250,000
additional lives per year between 2030 and 2050. Research has consistently
shown that the arguments about the public health impacts of climate change
were amongst the most persuasive, and most likely to induce behavioral
changes. Yet these arguments are not often put forward in public debates
on climate change, even though the COVID-19 crisis shows once again the
persuasiveness of such points. For example, in France, where such evidence
exists, since 2000, the two major peaks of mortality have been caused by the
2003 heat wave (made more likely due to climate change) and by the
coronavirus impacts in 2020.

Figure 1 – Excess mortality in France since 2000. The Y axis shows the total
number of deaths for every day of the year. The X axis shows the progress of the
year. The red curve highlights the year 2020 so far which shows a clear peak
above the usual mort
Environmental changes are also among the leading drivers of migration and
displacement across the world. In 2019, close to 25 million people were
displaced by disasters alone, about three times the number of people
displaced by conflicts and violence. At the same time that billions were forced to
immobility at home, the COVID-19 pandemic also led millions to flee
contaminated zones or confinement measures1, while most countries closed
their borders in an attempt to slow down the spread of the virus2. And while the
virus was inadvertently transported across the world by business travelers,
tourists and exchange students, migrants and refugees have too
often been unable to access health systems or apply distancing measures.

Yet improving the health of migrants and reducing adverse health outcomes
related to migration are also growing concerns globally. Current crises related to
migration and displacement highlight the different challenges related to
migrants’ health, especially in humanitarian emergencies. In recent years,
many programmes and initiatives have sought to improve migrants’ health,
including at IOM. During the pandemic, several governments introduced specific
measures to improve migrants’ access to health services. For example,
the Government of Portugal regularized irregular migrants3 allowing them
to access health services, while the Government of Ireland introduced a
pandemic unemployment payment4 that covered regular and irregular migrant
workers alike.

The complex relationship between environmental changes, migration and

health

Although migrants’ health and environmental migration are known to be major

challenges at present, few attempts have been made to consider the complex
associations that unite environmental changes, migration and health in an
integrated three-pronged nexus. Therefore, we propose a basic explanatory
framework that highlights the linkages between these three dimensions and
seeks to encourage debate, and new research about how planetary health is
concerned with, and within, this three-pronged nexus.
Figure 2 – Explanatory framework of the relationships between environmental
changes, migration and health

Environmental changes are known to affect populations’ health (pathway A;

figure 2). Most of this influence is through direct exposures such as heatwaves
or extreme weather events, but less direct impacts also arise from deforestation
or ecosystems disruptions at large – about 75 per cent of emerging infectious
diseases are zoonotic diseases. Issues such as proliferation of new or resistant
strains of pathogens are also an unwelcomed scenario. The indirect impacts
arising from environmental, ecological and social systems will affect human
health through changes in food yields, freshwater flows and quality, stability of
infectious disease patterns, air quality, social cohesion, and family income and
livelihoods. These impacts are also indirect factors of migration.

Climate change, in particular, could threaten food security through reductions in

agricultural and fishery yields. This effect is particularly alarming in regions that
are already facing food insecurity, such as in sub-Saharan Africa and South
Asia. Moreover, the increased occurrence of flooding or drought cycles as well
as hotter summers in some regions are likely to increase risks to agricultural
productivity. Climate change will also impact the geographical range, seasonality,
and incidence of various infectious diseases, such as malaria, diarrheal
diseases, and cholera.

Environmental changes, especially extreme weather events, deforestation, sea-

level rise, soil degradation, and food and water scarcity are strongly associated
with migration (pathway B; figure 2). In some cases, migration will be a strategy
of last resort, with people left with no other choice as a result of loss of habitable
land, extreme health risks, or deteriorating livelihoods. In this case,
displacement might increase the risks of adverse health outcomes, in
particular, for vulnerable groups, such as children and the elderly or the
disabled, as well as those who are already suffering from (chronic) illnesses
(pathway C; figure 2).

Migration is not automatically an indicator of vulnerability; it can also be an

adaptive response to cope with the effects of climate change, and not just in
low-income countries. Moving to a new location might avoid the hazards from
extreme weather events and degraded environmental conditions, improve
health suffering from undernutrition or freshwater shortages, and eventually
enhance access to health care (pathway C; figure 2). Migration, in this case, can
improve human security and constitute a form of health-seeking behavior.
However, as it is the case with refugees, many of the regions that receive
migrants prompted to move by environmental changes are located
in developing countries, where public health resources are lacking or
inadequate. Thus, the health risks associated with climate-related migration are
becoming a key issue and also a source of disability, morbidity, and loss of life.

The way forward: planetary health

Planetary health, as a new discipline, was created to safeguard human health in

the Anthropocene epoch. It revolves around a new interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary approach that seeks to explore the effects of environmental
change on human health. Planetary health focuses in particular on two
dimensions: the first situates human health within human systems, looking at
the threats faced by our species, such as pandemics or climate change; the
second focuses on the natural systems within which our species evolve and
looks at the health and diversity of the biosphere.

Scholarly communities working on environmental changes, migration, and

health have not yet coalesced to bring together their data, methods, and
expertise. Without a framework to connect the three issues, research agendas
are likely to expand in different directions and policy responses to develop in an
inconsistent fashion. Planetary health demands new coalitions and partnerships
across many different disciplines to meet the pervasive knowledge failures.

Together, environmental changes and migration will have a multiplying effect on

health that we should not ignore. The current COVID-19 crisis should be a wake-
up call to address these three dimensions together, rather than two at a time.
This approach will require the design of joint research agendas, methods, and
projects across scholarly communities as well as between researchers, policy-
makers and civil society at large. We contend that the concept of planetary
health can prove a very welcomed instrument to achieve such connections,
and inform meaningful and consistent policy responses.

About the autors

François GEMENNE

Dr François Gemenne leads the Hugo Observatory at the University of Liège

(Belgium), a research center that works on the connections between
environmental changes and migration. He lectures on these topics at the Free
University of Brussels, at the University of Liège and Sciences Po in Paris. He is a
lead author for IPCC (WG II) and a co-author of the Atlas of Environmental
Migration with IOM.

Anneliese DEPOUX

Dr Anneliese Depoux leads the Centre Virchow-Villermé, a French-German

research center for Public Health, with a branch in Paris - Université de Paris -,
and another one in Berlin - Charité Universitätsmedizin. The Centre has
pioneered work on the health impacts of climate change, and is
widely recognised as a European hub for research on this emerging topic. Dr
Depoux founded the 4C-Health research consortium to foster this approach, and
she is a member of the Lancet Countdown initiative and the Global Consortium
on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University.

Stefanie SCHÜTTE
Dr Stefanie Schütte is an epidemiologist, working as a science and business
consultant to empower researchers and innovative companies in order
to achieve maximum impact in the field of health and life sciences. She is also a
lecturer and course coordinator at the Apollon University for Applied Health
Sciences in Germany. Prior to this, she worked as a researcher and project
manager at the Centre Virchow-Villermé in Paris.

This article is part of the IOM Series on The COVID-19 Pandemic, Migration
and the Environment.

How climate change makes global health issues harder to solve

Human health is deeply linked to planetary health. As climate change harms the
planet, we too are harmed. But it is possible to break the link, experts say.

 21 September 2023
 4 min read
 byWorld Economic Forum

Two people riding a bike in a flooded city. Credit: Biplab Sau on Pexels
 59Shares

At its core, climate change is also a health issue: from the air we breathe to the food
we eat, the health of the planet is fundamentally linked to our own health.

As climate change worsens, so too does human health. And as weather becomes
more unpredictable and ecosystems change, it creates and exacerbates acute
emergencies. Mental health, disease spread, and more are all at risk of worsening if
we do not address climate change.

Understanding, and then breaking, the link between climate change and poor health
outcomes is possible by working with and in local communities and by taking the
connection seriously on a global scale. Already, there is evidence in communities
that this is possible.

Experts explored the link between climate and health at the World Economic
Forum's Sustainable Development Impact Meetings 2023 in New York at a session
on Exploring the Climate and Health Nexus.

The climate-health nexus

Vanessa Kerry, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Seed Global Health, also
serving as Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health at the World Health
Organization, highlighted the negative connection between climate ill-health and
human ill-health she witnessed in her work.

"We've seen in Malawi, for example, a country I've been in for 13 years, we've been
helping respond to their cholera outbreak that just happened, which was the longest
and worst outbreak that ever happened. Schools shut down, businesses shut down,
tens of thousands got sick, thousands died."

She explained this was "all because of climate change" — tropical storms,
exacerbated by climate change, sweeping southern Africa had compromised the
water supply, infecting it with cholera.

"What's happening in health and what's happening in

climate doesn't respect borders."
— Vanessa Kerry, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Seed Global Health
That strain of cholera was the same one found in floods in Pakistan in 2021, she
adds, which reiterates the transnational nature of the climate change issue: "We
share the crisis — what's happening in health and what's happening in climate
doesn't respect borders."

Dr Jemilah Mahmood, Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health
at Malaysia's Sunway University, said that the unfortunate convergence of climate
and health is particularly acute in Asia.

"Asia is the supermarket of disasters," Mahmood said. "All the climate disasters
you're going to see are going to happen in Asia. Any infectious disease outbreaks —
a lot of them emerge from Asia as well."

Local solutions to a global challenge

For Mahmood, there is clear hope: "With very little resources, you can have high
impact… working with communities, with local resources, you have the ability to
listen and develop empathy and develop solutions that are very local and very
relevant."

She highlighted the work in Indonesia of Health in Harmony, in partnership with Alam
Sehat Lestari, who worked with local communities forced into deforestation to pay for
healthcare. Now, after being provided the resources for a health clinic, instead of
cutting down forests, they are protecting them. Poor health was causing
deforestation.

Have you read?

 Malaria is thriving in Kenya thanks to climate change

 The deadly diseases that are spiking because of climate change
 Climate and health crises are converging: we need to tackle them together

Health In Harmony today works with 135,000 Indigenous, traditional and rainforest
peoples, providing healthcare in exchange for goods like handicrafts or even labour,
and protects more than 8.8 million hectares of rainforest.

For Mahmood, this is evidence that the cycle can be broken: "They stopped
deforestation and they find that they have other means for economic livelihood. Their
families are healthy. That's what people want ultimately."

Community-based solutions also help counter the despair that we see from climate
stressors, says John Balbus, Director at the Office of Climate Change and Health
Equity and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate Change and Health Equity at the
US Department of Health and Human Services.

"It's not just a physical health problem; it's a physical and mental health problem.
And we have to address those two things together," he says.
"And so we're working on community-based solutions that not only provide services
but also provide hope to young people."

The session 'Exploring the Climate and Health Nexus' was moderated by Paulette
Frank, Chief Sustainability Officer, Johnson & Johnson.

Participants:

Dr Jemilah Mahmood, Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health,
Sunway University

Vanessa Kerry, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Seed Global Health and
Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health at the World Health Organization

John Balbus, Director, Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, US Department
of Health and Human Services

Watch the full session here:

Written by
Chris Hamill-Stewart, Writer, Forum Agenda

Gayle Markovitz, Lead Editor, World Economic Forum

Website
This article was originally published by the World Economic Forum on 20 September 2023.

 Original article

Planetary health: understanding the links between

environmental degradation and health impacts

Type d'action : HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

Nombre d'étapes : Single stage
Date d'ouverture : 12 janvier 2023
Date de clôture : 13 avril 2023 17:00
Détail du topic
Budget : €30 000 000
Call : Environment and health (Single stage - 2023)
Call Identifier : HORIZON-HLTH-2023-ENVHLTH-02
Description :
ExpectedOutcome:
This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or
several expected impacts of destination 2 ‘Living and working in a health-
promoting environment’. To that end, proposals under this topic should aim for
delivering results that are directed, tailored towards and contributing to most of the
following expected outcomes:
 Climate and environmental policies are supported with better knowledge on
the Earth natural systems and human health interactions;
 Sustainable planetary health policies which foster co-benefits to human
health and the health of ecosystems are supported with robust evidence;
 Cross sectorial and multidisciplinary scientific collaborations, including
expertise in public health and One Health, are established;
 Public authorities rely on indicators about the impacts on human health of
changes or degradation of natural systems to support adaptation and
mitigation strategies to natural hazards;
 Policymakers have better tools to improve the predictive capability and
preparedness as well as to envision prevention strategies to deal with the
impacts on human health of changes or degradation of ecosystems;
 Citizens are engaged and informed about the impact of natural systems’
degradation on human health and behaviours aiming at the conservation of
ecosystems are promoted.
Scope:
Globally, life quality and expectancy have increased to unprecedented levels over
the last decades due to the significant public health, agricultural, industrial and
technological achievements of the 20th century. On the other hand, the ongoing
trend of environmental degradation and global climate and environmental changes
has introduced new pressures, which involve large impacts on human health and
might put at risk the recent public health gains.
Among others, climate change, biodiversity loss, biological invasions,
environmental pollution, changes in land use and degradation, deforestation,
thawing permafrost (in polar regions, and particularly in the Arctic), overfishing,
new animal diseases and acidification of water bodies can result in reduced food
and water availability and safety and increased exposure to factors causing
infectious and non-communicable diseases. Additionally, changes in weather and
climate extremes have been observed across the globe, resulting in an increase of
the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heavy precipitation
and floods, heat waves and hot extremes, droughts and tropical cyclones.
There is increasing evidence showing that many of these environmental stressors
and changes can cause profound short- and long-term negative impacts on human
health and well-being, contributing to increased morbidity and mortality
worldwide. Understanding and acting upon these challenges calls for a
multidisciplinary, cross-sectorial and trans-border approach ranging from the local
to the global scale. The effects can be direct due to increases in floods, heatwaves,
water shortages, landslides, exposure to ultraviolet radiation, exposure to
pollutants, among others, or indirect and complex, as climate change -mediated or
ecosystem-mediated. In addition, it is imperative that the solutions and initiatives
chosen to prevent environmental degradation are safe for human health and the
environment.
Planetary health is a concept focused on the interdependencies between human
health and the state of earth’s complex natural systems. A key focus is on
understanding how the current trend of human-related environmental degradation
can affect the health and well-being of current and future generations. The
Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health[1] published a
report in 2015, laying the foundation for the development of this important new
field of study[2]. In 2020 the Helsinki declaration[3] was published, resulting from
a conference where participants discussed how to implement the planetary health
approach in Europe in the context of the European Green Deal. Planetary health is
also a priority topic in the research agenda in environment, climate and health
proposed by the Coordination and support action HERA[4].
Applicants are invited to submit proposals providing actionable evidence for
policymakers to take preventive actions to protect the human health and wellbeing
by exploring the links between human health and environmental degradation in an
integrated and comprehensive manner. More fragmented contributions focused on
less studied aspects such as the links between climate change and health and,
between biodiversity and health, will also be considered.
To advance the knowledge on planetary health to support policymaking in this
area, the applicants should address several of the following activities:
 Provide strengthened evidence for health and wellbeing impacts of planetary
changes, considering a systems thinking framework or a fragmentary
approach focused on the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on
human health (for biodiversity loss, proposals should not focus on the
connection between the biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation with
the prevention of zoonotic emerging diseases since this topic will be covered
by CL6-2023-BIODIV: Interlinkages between biodiversity loss and
degradation of ecosystems and the emergence of zoonotic diseases);
 Provide improved understanding and modelling of human–ecological
systems interactions and ecosystem-mediated effects on human health and
well-being, including the attribution of health outcomes to environmental
change;
 Provide a methodology to identify and prioritise threats for public health
caused by environmental degradation, with a view to improving
preparedness of health systems to these threats, through structured processes
that move from evidence to recommendations and decisions;
 Investigation how infections agents that might have the capacity to adapt to
other host species can spread via the environment, and how this type of
insight might lead to enhanced monitoring strategies;
 Lay the foundations for integrated surveillance systems considering already
established monitoring systems (e.g. systematic wastewater monitoring) and
using available and newly collected health, socioeconomic, and
environmental data for defined populations over longer time periods. This
would provide early detection of emerging disease outbreaks (e.g. zoonotic
diseases, potential permafrost release of new and old pathogens) or changes
in nutrition and non-communicable disease burden and support the
 assessment of the integrated health, environmental, and socioeconomic
effect of policies and technologies.
 Explore strategies to reduce environmental damage and harmful emissions
(e.g. air pollution) including assessment of health co-benefits through
engagement with relevant HE partnerships and missions;
 Explore implications of planetary health for health systems and public
health and identify opportunities to mitigate adverse health impacts of
environmental degradation;
 Improve risk communication to policymakers, public authorities, industry
and the public and support evidence-informed decisions by policymakers,
by increasing capacity to do systematic reviews and provide rigorous policy
briefs;
 Advance knowledge and actions to reduce the burden of non-communicable
diseases while reducing the environmental pressure in areas like nutrition,
physical activity, and mobility, and to assess the integrated health,
environmental, and socioeconomic effect of those actions (i.e. behaviour
change interventions, policies or new technologies);
 Provide better understanding on adaptation to climate and other
environmental changes to protect human health, including the interactions
between different planetary boundaries and the need to integrate adaptation
and mitigation strategies;
 Improved health impact assessment approaches accounting for
environmental externalities and estimating the cost and benefits of
interventions versus no action.
This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities
(SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the
inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant
effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. Researchers
should carefully integrate distributive considerations in their analysis by
considering, where relevant, disaggregated effects for different socio-economic
groups.
In order to optimise synergies and increase the impact of the projects, all projects
selected for funding from this topic will form a cluster and be required to
participate in common networking and joint activities. Without the prerequisite to
detail concrete joint activities, proposals should allocate a sufficient budget for the
attendance to regular joint meetings and to cover the costs of any other potential
common networking and joint activities.
Applicants envisaging to include clinical studies should provide details of their
clinical studies in the dedicated annex using the template provided in the
submission system. See definition of clinical studies in the introduction to this
work programme part.
[1]https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(15)60901-1.pdf
[2]“Our definition of planetary health is the achievement of the highest attainable
standard of health, well-being, and equity worldwide through judicious attention
to the human systems—political, economic, and social—that shape the future of
humanity and the Earth’s natural systems that define the safe environmental limits
within which humanity can flourish. Put simply, planetary health is the health of
human civilisation and the state of the natural systems on which it depends”
[3]A call for urgent action to safeguard our planet and our health in line with the
helsinki declaration –
ScienceDirect, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935120314
973
[4]https://www.heraresearcheu.eu/

Climate Change and Planetary Health Concentration

Climate change, air pollution, and ecological degradation have had extreme impacts on the
health of our planet. Our ability to urgently and ambitiously implement climate crisis
solutions will define public health outcomes for generations to come.

The Climate Change and Planetary Health concentration, launching in fall of 2024, will help
you understand the consequences of the current planetary health crisis, including its effects
on food, water, air, infectious diseases, extreme weather events, heat, mental health,
migration, and political stability.
Students in this concentration will also learn about the health inequity born out of
environmental degradation. Structural racism and international economic policy have
exacerbated the climate crisis, with communities of color, poor communities, and the Global
South being disproportionately impacted. You will be equipped to use research, leadership,
advocacy, and policy to implement solutions that better serve these populations.

Curriculum
This is a ten-unit concentration for all degree programs at Harvard Chan School. Students in
this concentration will be required to take core curriculum courses, choose one of 2 tracks
(research methodologies or research translation), and take additional elective courses at
Harvard Chan School and across Harvard University.

Learning Objectives
Interpret foundational climate, planetary, and environmental science.

1.
1. Explain the impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on global
climate (greenhouse effect).
2. Describe historical trends and current sources of anthropogenic
greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
3. Understand how human activities impact ecological stability, land use
changes, biodiversity, water pollution, deforestation and food systems.

Define the mechanisms by which climate change and degradation of planetary health impact
public health.

1.
1. Explain the ways by which climate change and planetary health
degradation impacts public health through environmental exposure
pathways including natural disasters/extreme weather events, changes in
water quantity and quality, food insecurity, heat stress, air pollution, and
vector borne infections.
2. Identify risks for disease emergence arising from ecological degradation
in the form of deforestation, land use changes, agricultural practices,
habitat encroachment, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
3. Describe how the acute and chronic impacts of climate change and
degradation of planetary health affect mental health.
4. List ways in which the delivery of health care creates greenhouse gas
emissions, pollution, environmental toxicants and waste.
5. Explain how climate change can interfere with the delivery of health care
through effects on access to care and impacts on health care facilities and
supply chains.
 6. Identify public health findings in major reports such as the U.N.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, U.N.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services, and National Climate Assessment.

Analyze the historical and structural causes of climate change and planetary health
degradation and describe the ways in which it creates/exacerbates health inequity.

1.
1. Explain how climate change and planetary health degradation intersects
with structural racism and health equity in the U.S. (e.g. redlining, heat
islands, the disproportionate impact on certain populations, intersecting
health challenges, access to adaptive and protective measures).
2. Define environmental justice and recognize its importance to climate and
planetary health solutions.
3. Describe impacts of climate change and planetary health on global health
inequities (e.g. natural disasters/extreme weather events, forced
migration, social instability, political conflict, food security, water
scarcity, and sea level rise), including inequitable resource allocation for
adaptive responses.
4. Identify the ways in which Black and Indigenous people, and people from
the Global South contribute to climate and planetary solutions.

Develop public health skill sets to contribute to climate and planetary solutions.

Research Methodologies track

1.
1. Use foundational biostatistical and epidemiological methodology to
contribute to scientific discovery at the intersection of public health,
climate change and planetary health.
2. Translate scientific findings to the public forum.

Research Translation track

1.
1. Communicate the health and health equity benefits of climate and
planetary solutions to the general public, policy makers, and patients, and
address climate science misinformation.
2. Examine the role research, health systems, education, communication,
community partnership, and advocacy play in the development of climate
and planetary solutions.
3. Execute policy and advocacy strategies that promote a healthy planet.

Concentration co-sponsors
 
 Harvard Chan C-CHANGE
 FXB Center for Health and Human Rights
 Department of Environmental Health
 Department of Global Health and Population
 Department of Nutrition
 Department of Biostatistics

To Protect Human Health, We Must Protect the Earth’s

Health
“The Earth crisis now represents a humanitarian crisis,” says Sam
Myers. But there are solutions that serve both people and the planet.

Published
April 23, 2024
By Public Health On Call
ENVIRONMENT

FOOD/NUTRITION

HEALTH SECURITY

Human activities have transformed and degraded Earth’s natural

systems. But it’s not just the planet that endures the harms of things
like pollution and climate change. Changes like rising ocean
temperatures and CO2 levels have cascading effects that threaten the
future of humans.

In this Q&A, adapted from the April 22 episode of Public Health On

Call, Joshua Sharfstein, MD, talks with Sam Myers, MD, faculty
director of the new Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health and
founding director of the Planetary Health Alliance, about this
interdisciplinary approach to understanding how the state of the
planet impacts human health and well-being.

What is planetary health?

Planetary health is a cross-disciplinary field that has emerged in the

last eight or nine years. It focuses on how our transformation of
nature—our degradation and alteration of all of our planet's natural
systems—is coming back to affect our health.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, global-scale pollution of air, water,

and soil, changes in land use and land cover—all driven by human
activity—are resulting in increased burdens of disease and impacting
all dimensions of human health. We want to understand what those
dynamics are and how we can address them.

What are some examples of changes impacting human health?

We know that ocean warming is changing the size of both fish and
fisheries. It’s also changing where the fisheries are located, moving
them away from the tropics and toward the poles. We did a study to
determine how many people depend on wild-harvested fish for critical
nutrients and live close to a threshold of insufficient intake of those
nutrients—what we define as the vulnerable population to these
changes. We found that over a billion people fall into this category.

We’ve also found that crops like rice, wheat, and maize—foods that
provide most of the calories in the global diet—tend to lose essential
nutrients when grown at elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide
like the ones we expect to see by about the middle of this century.

In our free air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiments, we

grew 41 cultivars of those kinds of crops in seven locations across
three continents over 10 years. We found that growing these staple
food crops at high CO2 levels significantly reduces the amount of iron,
zinc, and protein they contain. We then modeled what these findings
would mean for populations in 150 countries and found that the CO2
effect alone would cause around 150-200 million people to be pushed
into nutritional insufficiency of these nutrients.

Other research has shown that growing different cultivars of rice at

elevated CO2 resulted in B vitamins being reduced by almost 30%.
We used that data to model what that might mean for the risk of
things like neural tube defects, and we found really large impacts.

What other environmental factors does planetary health consider?

Changing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere is just one very specific

biophysical change, but we're changing all the biophysical conditions
that our entire food production system has been developed to be
optimized for: temperature, precipitation, amount of arable land,
pollinators, and pest and pathogen relationships. All of those things
are now changing in response to human activity in ways that usually
represent headwinds for global food production, in terms of both
quality and quantity.

How does planetary health address the extreme scale of the changes
humans are causing the environment and the consequences of those?

The field of planetary health has emerged out of a recognition that

the pace and scale at which we're transforming all our natural
systems has become a global health crisis.

The global health impacts of the Earth crisis are kind of a silent
pandemic, and there are parallels to the COVID pandemic we've just
come out of. The COVID pandemic required massive mobilization of
new technologies, investments in economic stimulus and foreign
assistance, respect for science, and urgent global behavior change.
This silent pandemic is probably much more impactful to human
health. It could be addressed in a very similar way, but we’re doing
very little.

You can't respond to a crisis until you recognize that there is a crisis.
As you are trying to raise concern over planetary health, how is that
warning signal being received?
The field is growing very quickly. We started the Planetary Health
Alliance about eight years ago, and we now have more than 400
organizations involved in more than 70 countries. There's been a very
rapid proliferation of new courses, degree programs, and journals in
planetary health. We’re also seeing government agencies adopting
planetary health as a frame, including the European Union, certain
national governments, and the UN system.

There has been a rapid understanding and recognition of the global

health urgency related to the Earth crisis, but it's a drop in the bucket
of what is really needed to fully mobilize and address the crisis.

Are there solutions that can address multiple problems at once?

Yes. From a policy standpoint, the goal is to find opportunities to both

optimize human health and well-being and reduce our ecological
footprint. In order to protect and regenerate the Earth’s natural life
support systems, we have to change the way we’re living. The good
news is there are a lot of ways we can do this, and many of these
changes also have major co-benefits.

For example, switching to clean, renewable energy is important to

addressing climate change. Doing so also reduces the amount of air
pollution, which drives something like 9 million deaths every year.
Greening our cities and designing them to be walkable and bikeable
not only reduces greenhouse gasses and increases biodiversity; these
changes also provide major mental and physical health benefits.

What is the Planetary Health Alliance and what does it do?

Contrary to what it sounds like, the Planetary Health Alliance doesn’t

fight for the planet’s health—they’re fighting for human health and
the health of other species.

It’s a recognition that the well-being of all life on earth depends on

stable natural life support systems. Things like degradation of
biodiversity, pollution, and land use change all interact with each
other in very complex ways that affect these foundational conditions
for all life on Earth:

 The quality of air that we breathe.

  The quality of water that we consume.
 The quality and quantity of food we can produce.
 Exposure to infectious disease and extreme weather events.

And these impacts are driving an urgent set of health problems.

The Alliance functions as sort of the backbone organization for this

growing global field. That includes curating new knowledge, writing
the first textbook for the field, developing core competencies for
education, creating a platform to support educators and planetary
health around the world, organizing an annual meeting, and putting
out a newsletter.

One half of the Alliance’s focus is to create and support a global

community of practice. The other half is what we call “mainstreaming
planetary health,” which means taking that community of practice,
the new knowledge, and conceptual frameworks out of the field and
connecting them to action.

We’re working to ensure that policymakers, the private sector, and

the general public are aware that the Earth crisis now represents a
humanitarian crisis and that there are a variety of solutions that
benefit both people and the planet.

Tell us about the Planetary Health Institute you've started at Johns

Hopkins.

The Institute is the first example of a major university using planetary

health as a lens to bring faculty and students together across all of its
schools and centers. The Institute is bringing together people in the
arts and humanities, engineers, natural scientists, and people in
government, law, and policy around this central project of planetary
health. We’ll focus on research, education, policy, practice, and
clinical programs. And already, there are all kinds of interesting
interdisciplinary initiatives at Hopkins that are focused on planetary
health: One on planetary health cities, one on Indigenous health, and
another one on food systems, just to name a few.

This interview was edited for length and clarity by Aliza Rosen.
Related:

 Healthy Planet, Healthy People

 New Johns Hopkins Institute Aims to Safeguard Human Health
on a Rapidly Changing Planet (JHU Hub)
 Planetary Health: Thinking About the Earth Crisis as a
Humanitarian Crisis (podcast)

How climate change makes global health issues harder to solve

Sep 20, 2023

Climate change is exacerbating health issues, but breaking the link is possible.
Image: REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
Chris Hamill-Stewart
Writer, Forum Agenda
Gayle Markovitz
Acting Head, Written and Audio Content, World Economic Forum
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This article is part of:Sustainable Development Impact Meetings
Listen to the article
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 Climate change and health are acutely linked — as planetary health

worsens, so too does human health.
 That link can be broken, though, with a combination of international
cooperation and local community-based interventions.

 Leading experts explored this at the Sustainable Development Impact

Meetings 2023 with a session on Exploring the Climate and Health
Nexus.

At its core, climate change is also a health issue: from the air we breathe to the food
we eat, the health of the planet is fundamentally linked to our own health.

As climate change worsens, so too does human health. And as weather becomes
more unpredictable and ecosystems change, it creates and exacerbates acute
emergencies. Mental health, disease spread, and more are all at risk of worsening if
we do not address climate change.
Understanding, and then breaking, the link between climate change and poor health
outcomes is possible by working with and in local communities and by taking the
connection seriously on a global scale. Already, there is evidence in communities
that this is possible.

Experts explored the link between climate and health at the World Economic
Forum's Sustainable Development Impact Meetings 2023 in New York at a session
on Exploring the Climate and Health Nexus.

Have you read?

 SDIM23: What are the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings – and what
to expect
 Climate change and global health: What actions are healthcare leaders
taking?
 Is a Mediterranean diet the sweet spot for climate and human health?

The climate-health nexus

Vanessa Kerry, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Seed Global Health, also
serving as Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health at the World Health
Organization, highlighted the negative connection between climate ill-health and
human ill-health she witnessed in her work.

“We've seen in Malawi, for example, a country I've been in for 13 years, we've been
helping respond to their cholera outbreak that just happened, which was the longest
and worst outbreak that ever happened. Schools shut down, businesses shut down,
tens of thousands got sick, thousands died.”

She explained this was “all because of climate change” — tropical storms,
exacerbated by climate change, sweeping southern Africa had compromised the
water supply, infecting it with cholera.

“
What’s happening in health and what’s happening in climate doesn’t respect
borders.
”
— Vanessa Kerry, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Seed Global Health

That strain of cholera was the same one found in floods in Pakistan in 2021, she
adds, which reiterates the transnational nature of the climate change issue: “We
share the crisis — what’s happening in health and what’s happening in climate
doesn’t respect borders.”

Dr Jemilah Mahmood, Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health
at Malaysia’s Sunway University, said that the unfortunate convergence of climate
and health is particularly acute in Asia.
"Asia is the supermarket of disasters," Mahmood said. "All the climate disasters
you're going to see are going to happen in Asia. Any infectious disease outbreaks —
a lot of them emerge from Asia as well."

Local solutions to a global challenge

For Mahmood, there is clear hope: “With very little resources, you can have high
impact… working with communities, with local resources, you have the ability to
listen and develop empathy and develop solutions that are very local and very
relevant.”

She highlighted the work in Indonesia of Health in Harmony, in partnership with Alam
Sehat Lestari, who worked with local communities forced into deforestation to pay for
healthcare. Now, after being provided the resources for a health clinic, instead of
cutting down forests, they are protecting them. Poor health was causing
deforestation.

Health In Harmony today works with 135,000 Indigenous, traditional and rainforest
peoples, providing healthcare in exchange for goods like handicrafts or even labour,
and protects more than 8.8 million hectares of rainforest.

For Mahmood, this is evidence that the cycle can be broken: “They stopped
deforestation and they find that they have other means for economic livelihood. Their
families are healthy. That's what people want ultimately.”

Community-based solutions also help counter the despair that we see from climate
stressors, says John Balbus, Director at the Office of Climate Change and Health
Equity and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate Change and Health Equity at the
US Department of Health and Human Services.

"It's not just a physical health problem; it's a physical and mental health problem.
And we have to address those two things together," he says.

"And so we're working on community-based solutions that not only provide services
but also provide hope to young people."

The session ‘Exploring the Climate and Health Nexus’ was moderated by Paulette
Frank, Chief Sustainability Officer, Johnson & Johnson.

Participants:

Dr Jemilah Mahmood, Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health,
Sunway University

Vanessa Kerry, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Seed Global Health and
Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health at the World Health Organization
John Balbus, Director, Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, US Department
of Health and Human Services

Watch the full session here:

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Economic Forum

Planetary Health
Planetary Health is a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and
social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of
human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all
life on Earth.
There is no doubt that our global environment is changing – from the hottest
years on record, to the worldwide disappearance of pollinators, to the global
collapse of fisheries, and to our use of about half of the planet's livable surface to
feed ourselves.

We are now in a new geological era, the Anthropocene, characterized by

humanity’s dramatic impact on Earth’s biophysical conditions. And though the
average global citizen’s health has improved over the past century, the stability of
our planet’s life support systems has sharply declined—putting recent public
health and development gains at risk.

It is not just climate change; it is everything change! We face not only a disrupted
climate system, but the 6th mass extinction of life on Earth; global scale pollution
of air, water, and soil; shortages of arable land and freshwater; pervasive changes
in land use and cover; and degradation of marine systems.

These anthropogenic environmental changes affect the quality of the air we

breathe and of the water we drink, the quality and quantity of food we produce,
our exposure to infectious diseases, and even the habitability of the places where
we live. Changes to natural life support systems are already impacting our health
and are projected to drive the majority of the global burden of disease over the
coming century, hitting today’s most vulnerable people and future generations
the hardest.

Everything is connected — changing our planet’s natural systems comes back to

affect us, and not always in ways that we would expect. Understanding and acting
upon these challenges calls for massive collaboration across disciplinary and
national boundaries to safeguard our health.

Why Planetary Health?

Never before has humanity’s footprint on Earth’s natural systems been so large. We are
outstripping available resources from the only habitable planet we know. Since 1950, the
human population has increased by nearly 200%; fossil fuel consumption by over 550%; and
marine fish capture by over 350%. We’ve placed dams on about 60% of the world’s rivers, we’ve
cleared nearly half of temperate and tropical forests, we use nearly half of accessible freshwater
every year, and we appropriate about half of the planet’s livable surface to feed ourselves

Our environment is changing. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising at a record pace,
with the current levels having increased by about 24% since the 1950s. 2016 was Earth's
warmest year on record, and 2018 was the warmest one for oceans, which have also
become 30% more acidic since the Industrial Revolution. Pollinators, which are needed for
plants and crops to grow, are disappearing worldwide. Biodiversity is rapidly being lost as an
estimated 150 species become extinct each day, which is 1,000 times higher than the "natural"
or "background" rate.
And it's affecting our health. Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, and other factors
affect where, when, and how intensely infectious diseases emerge. Increased drought, declining
pollinators, and extreme storms make it harder to grow food, and some crops are also becoming
less nutritious because of atmospheric changes, making people more susceptible to malnutrition
and disease. Air pollution, whether from industrial emissions or smoke from fires clearing
forests for agricultural use, can lead to cardiorespiratory illnesses and other diseases. Hurricanes
and other major storms put people’s lives at risk. And witnessing the degradation of our world
can have severe consequences for our mental health.
Everything is connected — what we do to the world comes back to affect us, and not always in
ways that we would expect. Understanding and acting upon these challenges call for massive
collaboration across disciplinary and national boundaries to safeguard our health.

Introductory Planetary Health videos

Click here to visit the full library

View the latest Introduction to Planetary Health slides:

 PDF
 PPT

These slides are open for public use without prior permission. We encourage you to present
Planetary Health to your communities.
Explore how our environment is changing

Water Scarcity

Changing Food Systems

 Urbanization

Biodiversity Shifts
Natural Disasters

Climate Change
Changing Land Use and Land Cover

Global Pollution
 Changing Biogeochemical Flows

Explore how this is impacting our health

Non Communicable Diseases

Infectious Disease

Mental Health
 Nutrition

Civil Strife and Displacement

Explore how it all comes together

Caption text also available here >
 Research articles
Browse relevant Planetary Health research articles through our bibliography,
featuring more than 1,200 articles spanning a variety of Planetary Health thematic
areas. This bibliography is updated monthly with the latest research articles. If you
are aware of a reference related to Planetary Health that you have noticed is
missing, please bring it to our attention by contacting us. To be notified of new
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