Planetary health is a solution-oriented, interdisciplinary field and social movement concerned with assessing and mitigating the effects of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all species on Earth. The foundation of planetary health is that long-term human well-being is dependent on the well-being of the earth, encompassing both its living and nonliving systems. The commission stated that the human population is healthier than it has ever been. Life expectancy is increasing. Poverty has decreased. Child mortality is declining.
Planetary health is defined as “the state of human civilization and the natural systems on which it is dependent.” The Rockefeller Foundation and The Lancet established the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health in 2015.
Definition
Drawing from the definition of health – “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” – as well as principles articulated in the preamble of the constitution of the World Health Organization, the report elaborated that planetary health refers to the “achievement of the highest attainable standard of health, wellbeing, 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.”
History
The concept of planetary health has been around for a while. Per Fugelli, a Norwegian physician, wrote in 1993: “Earth, the patient, is ill. Environmental upheavals on a global scale can have major effects for human health. It is time for doctors to provide a global diagnosis and treatment recommendations.”
Twenty-one years later, in the March 2014 issue of the medical journal The Lancet, a commentary called for the creation of a planetary health movement to transform the field of public health, which has traditionally focused on the health of human populations without necessarily considering the surrounding natural ecosystems. The plan acknowledged rising risks to natural and man-made systems that sustain humanity. In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation and The Lancet launched the concept as the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health.
One of numerous competing narratives about how we should think about health in the twenty-first century is planetary health. It was once usual to think of health solely in terms of an individual’s absence of illness. The notion of public health recognizes people’s correlations and connections, that people’s exposure to environmental toxins occurs in groups, that occupational hazards are a part of how we organize and control society, and that infectious disease transmission can be halted. Well-being became a social business with the advent of public health.
