The textbook Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves, co-edited by Dr. Samuel Myers and Dr. Howard Frumkin, uses an interdisciplinary approach to address a wide range of health impacts resulting from the degradation of Earth’s natural systems.
In partnership with Island Press, the Planetary Health Alliance presents Planetary Health: Protecting our Nature to Protect Ourselves. Co-edited by Dr. Samuel Myers and Dr. Howard Frumkin with contributions from widely recognized experts, this textbook is accompanied by an Anthology of Case Studies.
About the textbook: Human health depends on the health of the planet. Earth’s natural systems—the air, the water, the biodiversity, the climate—are our life support systems. Yet, climate change, biodiversity loss, scarcity of land and freshwater, pollution, and other threats are degrading these systems. The emerging field of Planetary Health aims to understand how these changes threaten our health and how to protect ourselves and the rest of the biosphere.
Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves provides an introduction to this new paradigm. With an interdisciplinary approach, the textbook addresses a wide range of health impacts felt in the Anthropocene, including food and nutrition, infectious and non-communicable diseases, dislocation and conflict, and mental health. It also presents strategies to combat environmental changes and its ill effects, such as controlling toxic exposures, investing in clean energy, improving urban design, and more.
Chapters are authored by widely recognized experts including Alexander Foster, Ajay Pillarisetti, Ana V. Diez Roux, Andy Haines, Andrew Farlow, Caroline Kihato, Chris Field, Daniel A. Rodríguez, David Montgomery, David Tilman, Felicia Keesing, Howard Frumkin, Iryna Dronova, Ivica Petrikova, James Dunk, Jennifer Cole, John Bongaarts, John F. Helliwell, Jon Hall, Kirk R. Smith, Kristen P. Patterson, Lauren Herzer Risi, Olga Sarmiento, Peter Gleick, Philip J. Landrigan, Rebecca Lorenzen, Richard S. Ostfeld, Robert Engelman, Rosie Mae Henson, Ruth DeFries, Samuel Myers, Sam Bickersteth, Susan Clayton, Terrence J. Collins, Warwick Anderson, and Will Evison.
The result is a comprehensive and optimistic overview of a growing field that is being adopted by researchers and universities worldwide, which has been hailed as one of the American Journal of Health’s 25 Best Books of All Time. Students of public health will gain a solid grounding in the new challenges their profession must confront, while those in the environmental sciences, agriculture, design professions, and other fields will become familiar with the human consequences of planetary changes. Understanding how our changing environment affects our health is increasingly critical to a variety of disciplines and professions. Planetary Health is the definitive guide to this vital field.
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The COVID microbe reminds us that biology can't be spun or compromised; climate change teaches us the same lesson about physics and chemistry. This volume underlines those insights, and helps us see how we can reimagine our relationship with the planet.
Bill McKibben
Author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
Additional resources are available for educators looking to integrate this textbook into their classes
Special thanks to our partners for leading translations of the textbook and making Planetary Health more accessible worldwide. If you would like to discuss translating the textbook in another language, contact us.
“In contrast with most previous books on environment and health which predominantly focus on problems, a refreshing aspect of Planetary Health is the considerable portion of the book that is dedicated toward solutions….Epidemiologists and other health scientists will appreciate Planetary Health’s comprehensive review of the environment-health literature and its incorporation of frameworks from biological, environmental and health sciences to improve causal inference between complex natural systems and human health. But perhaps the book’s most timely contribution is its roadmap for action to manage and protect our natural environments and improve health.”
In partnership with Island Press, the Planetary Health Alliance presents Planetary Health: Protecting our Nature to Protect Ourselves. Co-edited by Dr. Samuel Myers and Dr. Howard Frumkin with contributions from widely recognized experts, this textbook is accompanied by an Anthology of Case Studies.
