Insights and updates
Newsletter Archive
Track the mainstreaming of Planetary Health through our curated monthly digests and dispatches. Each edition features new research, community achievements, career opportunities, and inspiring voices from the field.
| Issue | Quote of the Month |
|---|---|
| March 2025 | “I find it intuitively organized, easy to navigate, and the perfect voice to invite/engage/explain/etc. It's sensational. A perfect historic tribute to the 10 years of work of building and advancing the field. It’s a triumph.” — Chris Marshall, Johns Hopkins Institute of Planetary Health, about the redesigned Planetary Health Alliance website. |
| February 2025 | “Fundamentally, the principles of Planetary Health follow the wisdom and knowledge systems of Indigenous people handed down more than millennia: ‘To harm the earth is to harm the self.'" — Susan Prescott, in Planetary Health: A New Approach to Healing the Anthropocene |
| January 2025 | “Planetary Health is not just health professionals and not just scientists. We need people of faith. We need authors. We need artists. We need people who are in agriculture—farmers. Everyone is needed in this movement.” — Teddie Potter, PhD, RN, FAAN, in the Power of Partnership podcast |
| 2024 in Review | |
| December 2024 | “The good news is that we look out across all our systems—whether it's food systems, energy systems, the built environment, circular economy, manufacturing—and we see an extraordinarily rich landscape of solutions. The answers are out there. There is an enormous amount we can do.” — Sam Myers, Faculty Director of the Planetary Health Alliance and the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, during his keynote speech at the 2nd World Health City Forum in Incheon City, Republic of Korea |
| November 2024 | "This is a pivotal year and decade for our cities, for humanity, and for our Earth. Let us thus seize the moment and make the decisions today that will shape a healthier, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable future for all people and our planet.” — Ban Ki-moon, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, during his opening speech at the 2nd World Health City Forum in Incheon City, Republic of Korea |
| October 2024 | "Our investment in the natural systems that we are a part of is essential to our own survival."" — Professor Walter Poleman from the University of Vermont in an article introducing Planetary Health as the central focus of the new university-wide Planetary Health Initiative |
| September 2024 | "We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants |
| August 2024 | "We need to change how we live, and that means not just electrical power but the power of imagination, and how we imagine." — Rebecca Solnit in “Today is Also the Day of Creation” |
| July 2024 | "The hallmark of wisdom is asking, ‘What effects will the decision I make today have on future generations? On the health of the planet?'" — Dr. Jane Goodall, Douglas Abrams, & Gail Hudson in The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times |
| June 2024 | "We need a 21st-century model of global stewardship. This must weave the Planetary Health approach into the very fabric of governance, policy, and practice." — Mr. HaoLiang Xu, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNDP Associate Administrator, in his keynote at PHAM2024 |
| May 2024 | "The intricate interplay that we call the environment is not scenery; it’s the fundamental health care system." — Joshua Brown, Senior Science Writer at Vermont Quarterly |
| April 2024 | “The Planetary Health Roadmap and Action Plan, which has kept more than 100 people busy over the last year, is a tangible manifestation of how we can best realize our vision to confront reality by using research and evidence to spur action.” — Professor Sibrandes Popema, President at Sunway University |
| March 2024 | "We are now re-learning what humans have always known, but which, since the industrial revolution, we have forgotten or ignored – that when we harm our environment, we harm ourselves.” —Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in a recently published commentary |
| February 2024 | "Much like a vessel, we may think because we are seated in different compartments, we are navigating alone; the actuality is we share each other, and this planet; thus, the vessel is all our homes collectively." — Claudia Milena Adler, lecturer and Deputy Programme Lead at the University of York |
| 2023 in Review | Planetary Health on the Global Stage |
| January 2024 | "Each single seahorse contains enough wonder to knock the whole of humanity off its feet, if we would but pay attention." — Katherine Rundell, author of The Golden Mole: And Other Vanishing Wonders |
| December 2023 | "There’s a growing argument that we shouldn’t be measuring the impact of climate change through degrees Celsius but in lives lost." — Dr. Vanessa Kerry, WHO Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health, in a promotional video for the Planetary Health Annual Meeting 2024 |
| November 2023 | “It is impossible to realise the intrinsic human right to flourish in a healthy environment if essential ecological processes and the natural foundations of life continue to be abused as mere property of humanity devoid of intrinsic value.” — Eric C. Ip argues that “the law should abandon the previous consensus that humans are absolute masters of the planet and that human health can be understood separately from the health of planetary ecosystems.” |
| October 2023 | “As we work together to promote, provide and protect the physical and mental health of individuals and communities, we are also working to heal our broken and hurting world.” — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General's remarks at the opening ceremony of the World Health Summit, Berlin, Germany – 15 October 2023 |
| September 2023 | “We are in the final stages of what actions are needed to preserve this planet, and, regrettably, I’m not sure everybody is getting it.” — Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, Co-Chair of the Sustainable Development Goals Advocates group |
| August 2023 | “The future depends on what we do today” — Mahatma Gandhi quoted by Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, in his closing remarks for the WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit, held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India |
| July 2023 | “A healthy population is not just human and social capital, or a by-product of economic growth. Health is a fundamental human right.” —Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Chair, WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All in the WHO Report “Health for All: Transforming economies to deliver what matters” in which the pursuit of Planetary Health is listed as a recommendation |
| June 2023 | "All evidence suggests this will not be a linear journey; it requires a leap in our understanding of how justice, economics, technology and global cooperation can be furthered in the service of a safe and just future." — Safe and just Earth system boundaries, Nature 2023 |
| May 2023 | "The health of the land and Peoples are synonymous, nurtured through relationships with the physical and social environments, providing a strong basis for health and overall well-being." — Indigenous determinants of health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development |
| April 2023 | "Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself? [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves." — Rachel Carson, on the U.S. television series CBS Reports program “The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,” April 3, 1963 |
| March 2023 | “Human health does not exist without forest health. It is pivotal that this message be communicated to, and fully understood by, politicians, decision-makers, and everyone living on this planet because, despite the simplicity of the message, the way we treat our forests demonstrates that we are very far from having achieved this simple realization, and an outdated, anthropocentric worldview prevails." — Forests and Trees for Human Health: Pathways, Impacts, Challenges and Response Options. A Global Assessment Report |
| February 2023 | "We must do everything we can do to protect our earth. Both to protect people's homes, and to preserve the wonderful nature where all living things are connected." — Harald V of Norway is the current King of Norway. |
| 2022 in Review | |
| December 2022 | "You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them." — Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan politician and human rights and environmental activist |
| November 2022 | "One home for one human family requires Planetary Health. We need to reset our values: there is enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed." — Sione Tu'itahi is a Tonga native and executive director of Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand and also the Global President of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) |
| October 2022 | "This movement is not one person, or one group. This movement is all of us and we need to make sure we value those who are disproportionately affected by this crisis." — Isra Hirsi is a climate and racial justice advocate who fights for those who do not have a voice |
| September 2022 | "A ruined planet cannot sustain human lives in good health. A healthy planet and healthy people are two sides of the same coin." — Dr. Margaret Chan, former Director General for the World Health Organization |
| August 2022 | "Nearly everything that has ever been achieved started with someone imagining it first." — Xiye Bastida, youth leader based in New York and known for her work with Fridays for Future, and co-founding Re-Earth Initiative |
| July 2022 | "The greatest challenge in the history of our Earth is also the greatest opportunity. We lead the greatest wave of innovation that humanity has ever known." — Vinisha Umanshankar, a 15-year-old innovator and Earthshot prize finalist, highlighted this statement at COP26 |
| June 2022 | "The new dawn blooms as we free it For there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it If only we're brave enough to be it" — This excerpt from “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman encompasses agency behind hope. |
| May 2022 | "Better futures will be missed if we get stuck in fear and dread." — Dr. Britt Wray shared her new book, “Generation Dread Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis” at a book reading at Stanford University. |
| April 2022 | "Our vision of a sustainable future will only materialize through action taken today." — Achim Steiner UNDP Administrator, Vice-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group, and member of the Planetary Health Alliance Advisory Board |
| March 2022 | "We live on a small planet - we are all connected whether we like it or not. We don't have a lot of time to reduce the risks of climate change - inaction and pessimism are luxuries we can't afford." — Sir Andy Haines, Steering Committee Emeritus at the Planetary Health Alliance |
| February 2022 | "With rare exceptions, all of your most important achievements on this planet will come from working with others - or, in a word, partnership." — In remembrance of Dr. Paul Farmer, we share this quote from his collection of short speeches “To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation” |
| January 2022 | "The world is remaking itself, and it is up to us to decide what shape that remaking will look like." — Lil Milagro Henriquez, Founder of Mycelium Youth Network and participant in 2020 U.S. Grassroots Accelerator |
| 2021 in Review | |
| November 2021 | "Anything less than your best is too much to pay. Anything later than now is too little too late. Nothing will change without you." — Writer, performer, and storyteller, Yrsa Daley-Ward opened the COP26 conference with her spoken word performance of her poem, "This is your invitation to lead with light" |
| October 2021 | "Indigenous people are not vulnerable, we become vulnerable. We become a victim of climate change, but we are not only a victim. We are solutions people." — Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) |
| September 2021 | "This is a real problem. It's a public health problem. It's a mental health problem. And it is a climate change problem. Really there is no way we are going to address the climate crisis without really looking at how young people are feeling about the challenges around us." — Jennifer Uchendu, Nigerian Youth Activist and founder of Susty Vibes |
| August 2021 | "Every person, in every place, from every calling, has a role to play in safeguarding the health of the planet and people for future generations." — The São Paulo Declaration on Planetary Health |
| July 2021 | "The reality is while we are in the same storm, we are definitely not in the same boat." — Wanjira Mathai, Vice President and Regional Director for Africa at World Resources Institute (WRI) |
| June 2021 | "In some Native languages, the term for plants translates to those who take care of us." — Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. |
| May 2021 | "We are living in an era of change...We need to reimagine our economy with holistic and regenerative thinking." — John Fullerton, Founder of the Capital Institute |
| March 2021 | "Ecocentric approaches to planetary health have existed for thousands of years in Indigenous communities, and are necessary to achieve long-term sustainability of the planet." — Dr. Nicole Redvers, Assistant Professor of Indians into Medicine and Family & Community Medicine at the University of North Dakota and member of the Deninu Kʻue First Nation |
| February 2020 | "There's no good thing that can be said about despair and pessimism. The whole thing is on the line right now, the entire meaning of the evolution of Homo sapiens. We either show that our power of invention is tremendous, or we show that the development of imagination in the hominin line was maladaptive." — Barry López (1945 - 2020) was an acclaimed environmental writer, sharing his experiences connected to nature particularly in the Arctic wilderness. |
| 2020 in Review | |
| December 2020 | "We urgently need a fundamental transformation of our societies based on the insight that we are part of nature and that our well-being depends on it. This does not mean sacrifice but rather an increase in quality of life - a reconsideration of what is really important." — Professor Sabine Gabrysch of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research gave the presentation "A Planetary Health Perspective on the Climate Crisis and COVID - 19" |
| November 2020 | "The health of people, their communities, and the planet will be my first consideration and I will maintain the utmost respect for human life, as well as reverence for the diversity of earth." — This is a tenet from A Pledge for Planetary Health to Unite Health Professionals in the Anthropocene |
| October 2020 | "I believe the nations of the world, ordinary people worldwide, are beginning to realize that greed does not actually lead to joy." — David Attenborough |
| September 2020 | "The pandemic has also shown...what a different future could look like. There is a glimmer of hope, there is a little crack in the door. What does it look like when you don't have cars, when you can walk your cities, when there's a different kind of public space." — Dr. Anna Diez Roux, Dean and Distinguished University Professor of Epidemiology at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University |
| August 2020 | "To truly reckon with the crises we face, we must replace systems that harm with systems that heal. In this great moment of disruption, as we feel things falling apart around us, we must have the courage to imagine a new future - one worthy of our children." — Dr. Gaurab Basu |
| July 2020 | "Let us all make the post-pandemic world a world of greater empathy, and of greater determination to protect the most vulnerable among us." — Ban Ki-moon is the former Secretary-General of the United Nations |
| June 2020 | "We can emerge from this crisis strong, with better jobs and a brighter, more equal and greener future for all." — UN Secretary-General António Guterres |
| May 2020 | "Today, we face this pandemic with clear-eyed moral courage. But after the ravages of the pandemic have taken their final toll, healthcare professionals will need a different kind of moral courage - to create a new vision of a healthy and just future." — Dr. Gaurab Basu, primary care physician, instructor at Harvard Medical School, and Co-Director of the Center for Health Equity Education & Advocacy |
| April 2020 | "Every word we speak and every action we take promotes either domination or partnership. It is up to each and every one of us to create a narrative that supports the health of humans and the entire planet." — Dr. Teddie Potter, Director of Planetary Health, University of Minnesota School of Nursing |
| C4PH: April 2020 | Community in the Time of Covid-19 |
| March 2020 | "Together, let's imagine the world after this crisis - one where we recognize our interdependence and act in solidarity. One where we work for an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity to interdependence." — Stephen Cornish, CEO at the David Suzuki Foundation |
| February 2020 | "There is much optimism and anticipation that this year could be a turning point in our relationship with nature, leading to the notion of 2020 being a "super year" for the environment. But this will only happen through conscious effort. If we drift on as we are, it will be far from super for people or the planet." — The Lancet Planetary Health |
| December 2019 | "We need to think about things differently. We need to think toward a health-promoting, health-supporting, and health-sustaining economy within our finite planetary boundaries." — Professor Sir Andy Haines |
| November 2019 | "It will take the work of the 7.5 billion people currently alive to ensure that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climate." — The Lancet Countdown Report 2019 |
| October 2019 | "I think of planetary health as a way of looking at the world. If you adopt that frame, you'll start to see different places where there are opportunities to apply [co-beneficial solutions] in a practical way." — Dr. Courtney Howard |
| C4PH: October 2019 | |
| September 2019 | "We are a community forged in urgency," — Dr. Sam Myers, PHA Director at the 2019 Planetary Health Annual Meeting |
| August 2019 | "Land is a critical resource." — IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land |
| July 2019 | "The coming years will be a vital period to save the planet and to achieve sustainable, inclusive human development." — UN Secretary-General António Guterres |
| June 2019 | "Climate change, extinctions, invasive species, technofossils, anthroturbation, terraforming of land, and redirection of water are all part of the indelible human signature." — The Anthropocene Project |
| May 2019 | "1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades..." — IPBES Report, May 6, 2019 |
| April 2019 | "...the last century's remarkable progress on promoting human longevity has paralleled extraordinary loss of environmental diversity and planet sustainability." — Eric Hartman |
| March 2019 | "Addressing our global environmental and health challenges ultimately rests on each of us." — Declaration Calling for Family Doctors of the World to Act on Planetary Health |
| February 2019 | "But climate change also displaces people...many island populations fear not only the loss of their homeland forever, but also the loss of their culture and identity..." — Caroline Anitha Devadason "Is the World Ready for Climate Change Refugees?" |
| January 2019 | "The planetary health concept can be strengthened even further when it includes addressing women and men's sexual and reproductive health and rights..." — Suzanne York and Robert Engelmen "Connecting Family Planning, Rights and the Environment for Planetary Health" |
| December 2018 | "...evidence of connections between land, culture, and health might also offer far wider insights into how human societies could thrive in better harmony with our planet..." — The Lancet Planetary Health |
| November 2018 | "...human impact on Mother Earth is affecting our health." — Rosy Akbar, Fijian Minister of Health and Medical Services Oceania Planetary Health Forum |
| October 2018 | "The goal is to begin to see how the broad natural cycles of the world interact with one another, and how human-driven changes to those cycles will turn cascade back into impacts on us, in both predictable and unexpected ways." — Christine Gerbode, "Storms, Fire and Planetary perspective." Duke Kushan Blog |
| September 2018 | "Environmental conditions will only worsen, and, like most global health issues, the poor and isolated are the most susceptible and defenseless." — Tarik Behmarhnia quoted in "Climate change puts heat on public health" |
| August 2018 | "...presenting climate change in a health frame is the most effective way to motivate populations to take action..." — Courtney Howard,"Climate Change: The Biggest Health Problem in the World." Global Health NOW |
| July 2018 | "...there are in fact many other options, any number of different ways of orienting ourselves in place and landscape." — Wade Davis, The Wayfinders |
| June 2018 | "We need to reconnect our spirit to Mother Earth and embrace ancient knowledge that we hold of understanding our relationship to our environment." — Elder Francois Paulette, Dene Suline and member of the Smith’s Landing Treaty 8 First Nation, speaking at the opening keynote of the 2018 Planetary Health Annual Meeting. |
| May 2018 | |
| April 2018 | |
| March 2018 | "There is a kind of knowing, a kind of identification with certain landscapes, that are undeniable but inexplicable." — Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, WBUR |
| February 2018 | "When you have that link to the land, you do see the connection, because your survival depends on it." — Johnnye Lewis, Traditional Ecological Knowledge: A Different Perspective on Health, 2018 |
| January 2018 | "We have been mistreating our planet and abusing its natural systems. If the planet were a patient, we could have attended to her long ago." — HRH the Prince of Wales, Climate Change (The Ladybird Expert Series) |
| December 2017 | "We are only as healthy as our planet." — Patricia Espinosa, High-Level Planetary Health Event, COP23 |
| November 2017 | "Achieving planetary health will require a renaissance in how we define our place in the world." — Dr. Samuel S. Myers, Academy of Medical Sciences and The Lancet International health Lecture |
| October 2017 | "[It's] about more than saving the planet in the longer terms; it's about saving human lives in the near term." — Leah Burrows "From sea to rising sea: Climate change in America" |
| September 2017 | |
| August 2017 | The Second Planetary Health Annual Meeting |
| July 2017 | "Planetary health...its focus is more expansive and holistic than traditional environmental health, bringing to the forefront inter- and intra-generational equity dimensions..." — United Nations Development Programme Issue Brief |
| June 2017 | "The risks we face lie within ourselves and the societies we have created." — Richard Horton and Selina Lo, "Planetary Health: A New Science for Exceptional Action" |
| May 2017 | "How do we explain to people that the work we have to do is really about understanding the ecosystems that underpin us and sustain us as humans, and how do we deal with the gaps when we realize that those ecosystems have lost their value or their services?" — Gina McCarthy, former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, speaking in closing remarks at PHGH2017. |
| April 2017 | "The Anthropocene is bringing complex, thorny health challenges on a global scale. More than ever, we need rigorous science, underpinned by systems thinking, transdisciplinarity, robust collaborations, creativity, and courage." — Howard Frumkin, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington School of Public Health |