WHAT IS PLANETARY HEALTH?
Increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, driven by human activity, negatively impacts global ecological systems and human health.
Human-driven emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and black carbon are primarily responsible for an unstable and changing climate, and most are produced by burning fossil fuels and altering natural habitats. Glacial melting, rising sea levels, increased global temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and changes in the abundance, distribution, and composition of species are all linked to the changing climate.
Globally, nearly twice as many natural disasters occurred between 2000 and 2019 and affected roughly 1 billion more people than the period spanning 1980 and 1999. Heat waves, droughts, fires, floods, tropical storms, and other extreme weather events pose both near- and long-term threats to human health and intergenerational equity. For example, particulate matter from fires reduces air quality and causes morbidity and mortality from cardiorespiratory disease; flooding leads to biological contamination of water supplies, displacement, injury, and trauma; and more intense coastal storms, combined with sea level rise and loss of coastal barrier systems (mangrove forests, vegetated dunes, coral reefs, and wetlands), generate a “triple threat” for inhabitants of low-lying coastal areas. Survivors of extreme weather events face long-term, serious physical and mental health impacts.
Climate change and ecosystem transformations are inextricably connected and often mutually exacerbated.
The field of Planetary Health uses a systems approach to connect the complexities of anthropogenic drivers of climate change to natural hazards. Understanding these relationships in terms of cause-and-effect is the first step in addressing climate change and its widespread effects on the planet’s ecosystems and well-being of its inhabitants.
We must take note of these causal relationships and advocate for living within planetary boundaries to preserve what climate stability we can for the safety of future generations and our biosphere.
Mental Health Climate Change
• Research & Reports
Climate Change Food Systems
• Research & Reports
Displacement and Conflict Climate Change
Researchers explore how climate change, conflict, migration and displacement, and health interact in humanitarian settings. They found that climate impacts often worsen existing vulnerabilities, emphasizing the need for collaboration across research, policy, and health systems to strengthen community resilience.
• Research & Reports
Climate Change Food Systems
For the first time, researchers looked at the long-term Omega-3 supply from Mediterranean fisheries and found that warming seas and declining fish stocks are reducing it. Gains from warm-water fish can’t make up for losses from temperate and cold-water species, putting future Omega-3 from seafood at serious risk.
• Research & Reports
Displacement and Conflict Climate Change
This report examines the impact of climate change across the Helmand River Basin. It documents the threat that both state and community responses to climate change and reductions in surface water pose to the livelihoods of an estimated 469,732 households in the Helmand River Basin – especially to the 3.65 million people on the Afghan side of the border, where the groundwater they have come to depend on is disappearing at an alarming rate. This research is part of a wider project examining the conflict that broke out between Iranian and Taliban forces in May 2023. In contrast to media...
• Research & Reports
