Planetary Health

Planetary health is a new subdiscipline, seeking to alert health workers to the risks to civilization, and thus to human health, at the global scale and in the near and midterm future. These risks arise from the critical erosion of ecosystem services, manifest in phenomena such as climate change and the loss of species, both charismatic (such as tigers) and tiny, such as insects. The severity of the crisis is also revealed by the unprecedented number of global refugees and displaced persons. Planetary health adds value to several predecessors within health approaches, such as EcoHealth and One Health, by explicitly warning that business as usual will lead to the collapse of civilization. Among the solutions it identifies are steps toward a fairer world, rapid decarbonization, and for health workers to become part of a movement for global social justice that must consider and seek to reduce pressures on the Earth system.